The unemployment rate was 6.6% in the second quarter

Tea Vassiljeva, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the decline in unemployment is a sign that the economy is improving. “However, there are no grounds for optimism yet, as there has been no rise in employment and the share of economically inactive people among the working-age population is substantial,” added Vassiljeva.

In the second quarter, the number of employed persons was 691,600 – this is 5,700 fewer than a year earlier but 5,300 more than in the first quarter. The employment rate was 68.6%, which is slightly lower than last year and just 0.6 percentage points higher than in the first quarter of this year. “There is a customary rise in employment at the start of summer, as shown by the second quarter data of recent years, but the rise was modest this year,” noted Vassiljeva.

Compared with the second quarter of last year, the number of employed persons decreased in agriculture, forestry and fishing and in the service sector. The number of persons employed in industry and construction was stable. “Looking at the number of employees, we can see that, year on year, this number has increased in industry and construction as well as in services,” added Vassiljeva.

The number of employed persons in Tallinn decreased by 5,800 year on year, which exceeds the decline for Estonia as a whole.

“Harju county, excluding Tallinn, and Southern Estonia were the only regions where employment increased both year on year and quarter on quarter. The number of employed persons was down everywhere else,” said Vassiljeva.

Unemployment rate down by 0.5 percentage points

Based on survey data, there were 49,000 unemployed persons in the second quarter, which is 10,200 fewer than in the same quarter of 2025. The unemployment rate was 6.6% –the lowest for the second quarter since 2023. “Compared with the first quarter of this year, there were 3,200 fewer unemployed persons and the unemployment rate was down by 0.5 percentage points. This means that the survey data on unemployment show a similar downward trend as the registered unemployment data of the Unemployment Insurance Fund,” explained Vassiljeva. 

The labour market situation of young people remains complicated, but there are signs of improvement

The unemployment rate of young people aged 15–24 was still high (22.4%) in the second quarter this year, but it was lower than the very high level in the second quarter last year (25.4%) and also decreased marginally compared with the youth unemployment rate of the first quarter (22.8%). “Young people’s interest in employment usually increases in the second and third quarters, i.e. during the summer break, and thus there are also more young people in the economically active population. This year, the good news is that young people not only looked for work but also found it,” said Vassiljeva.

In the second quarter this year, there were 3,300 more employed young people than in the second quarter last year. The youth employment rate was 33.8% in the second quarter, up by 1.5 percentage points year on year.

Compared with the first quarter, there was a small decrease in the economically inactive population, but the number of inactive people increased by 13,100 compared with the second quarter of last year. The labour force participation rate fell by 1.4 percentage points and was 73.4% in the second quarter this year. “If we look at the reasons for inactivity, there has been a rise in the number of people who are economically inactive for health-related reasons,” noted Vassiljeva.

The unemployment rate is the share of the unemployed in the labour force. The labour force consists of the employed (i.e. people who work) and the unemployed (i.e. people who do not work but are actively seeking work and are available to start work within two weeks). The employment rate is the share of the employed in the population aged 15–74. The labour force participation rate shows the share of the labour force in the population aged 15–74.

Data as at 14 August 2026 are published. The indicator values may change if there are any revisions made in the data sources after this date.

More detailed data have been published in the statistical database and in the labour market section on our website.

When using Statistics Estonia’s data and graphs, please indicate the source.

For further information:

Annaliisa Köss
Media Relations Partner
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 5696 6484
press [at] stat.ee

Photo: Shutterstock