Labour market

Labour market data are essential for planning the state budget and local budgets, and also as the input for strategic documents of the administrative fields of ministries. “Estonian Action Plan for Growth and Jobs 2008–2011” serves as an example of this, on the EU level “European Employment Strategy” may be brought as an example.

Many strategies and programmes are related to the labour market, regarding that the data and analyses on the labour market serve as the input on the one hand, but on the other hand the values of labour market indicators are influenced by the measures of action plans/operational programmes.

While producing labour market statistics, with regard to definitions and indicators, the compatibility with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities) is taken into account. Recommendations of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) are also taken into account.

More frequently used definitions in labour market context

Discouraged persons – non-working persons who would like to work and would be available for work as soon as there was work, but who are not actively seeking work because they do not believe in the chance of finding any.

Economically active population / labour force – persons who wish and are able to work (total of employed and unemployed persons).

Economically passive / inactive population – persons who do not wish or are not able to work.

Employed – a person who during the reference period worked and was paid as a wage earner, entrepreneur or a free-lancer; worked without direct payment in a family enterprise or on his / her own farm; was temporarily absent from work.

Employment rate – the share of the employed in the working-age population.

Unemployed – a person who fulfils the following three conditions: he or she is without work (does not work anywhere at the moment and is not temporarily absent from work); he or she is currently (in the course of two weeks) available for work if there should be work; he or she is actively seeking work.

Unemployment rate – the share of the unemployed in the labour force.

Working-age / labour-age population – the part of the population that is used as the basis when examining the economic activity of the population, or in other words, the population of the age that is the object of a labour force survey (population between the ages of 15 and 74).