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“Compared with the first quarter, labour market indicators have improved, but remain below the figures for the second quarter of 2024,” said Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia. The analyst noted that while the unemployment rate in the second quarter (7.8%) was slightly higher than in last year’s second quarter (7.6%), it was 0.8 percentage points lower than in the first quarter of 2025. “The unemployment rate for men (8.4%) was higher than that for women (7.2%). There were a total of 59,200 unemployed persons in the second quarter, which is 5,000 fewer than in the previous quarter

Robert Müürsepp, the national accounts team lead at Statistics Estonia, said that the fourth quarter marked the end of 10 quarters of recession. “The last time the GDP grew was in the first quarter of 2022,” Müürsepp noted. In contrast to previous quarters, the majority of activities had a positive impact on the economy. “The energy sector led the way, with value added increasing by 21%. This was followed by real estate activities and information and communication – both saw their value added rise by 5.7%. Notably, manufacturing also recovered from the crisis, growing by 0.5%. The value added

Robert Müürsepp, team lead of national accounts at Statistics Estonia, said that although the economy has shown slight growth for two consecutive quarters, the contribution of most sectors has remained insignificant. “Manufacturing was the biggest positive contributor to GDP in the third quarter, with its value added growing by 7.9%. The last time this sector performed so well was in the fourth quarter of 2021. However, it must be noted that production figures were still modest,” noted Müürsepp. In addition to manufacturing, the largest positive contributors to the economy were the energy

This is the sixth time that Statistics Estonia has been commissioned by the Education and Youth Board to analyse the economic contribution of working international students and international graduates who stay in Estonia and work here. In the academic year 2023/2024, there were 4,336 international students in Estonia and 1,960 of them worked here as well. The number of working international students has decreased, but they are more often in long-term employment Kadri Rootalu, data scientist at Statistics Estonia and the author of the report, said that, compared to the preceding academic year

“In the third quarter of this year, the percentage change in wages and salaries remained at the same level as in the previous quarter. However, in the third quarter of 2024, wage growth was 8.1%, which means that the year-on-year growth in wages and salaries slowed down,” said Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia. She added that, in the second quarter, employees usually receive more bonuses (such as holiday pay), which is why the average wages and salaries in the third quarter are typically lower than in the second quarter. In the third quarter, the average monthly gross wages and

Environmental protection expenditure accounts reflect the measures and expenditures targeted at the prevention, reduction or elimination of pollution. National expenditure on environmental protection is calculated as a sum of current expenditure and capital expenditure (investments) on environmental protection activities, after deducting transfers from the rest of the world. Grete Luukas, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, stated that nearly half of the environmental protection expenditure in 2023 was made up of expenditures on waste management (€404 million). “ A large contribution to

Jane Leppmets, analyst at Statistics Estonia, noted that, compared with 2024, exports of services to European Union countries increased by 4% in the first quarter of this year, while imports from these countries grew by 8%. Exports of services to non-EU countries rose by 6% and imports from these countries increased by 18%. “The latter was mainly due to higher imports of services from Cyprus, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the first quarter, the largest import items were other business services from Cyprus, transport services from the United Kingdom, and telecommunications

Krista Vaikmets, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that wage growth slowed down in 2025. “Last year, wages and salaries did not grow as fast as in previous years, but monthly gross wages still increased in all counties. The biggest increase was registered in Valga, Põlva and Rapla counties where gross wages were up by more than 6.5% last year,” she said. Vaikmets added that, in 2025, the average monthly gross wages and salaries were the highest in Harju county (2,336 euros), rising by 5.3% year on year, and in Tartu county (2,112 euros), growing by 5.9% year on year. “Looking at

According to Statistics Estonia, in the second quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate was 7.6%, the employment rate was 69.7%, and the labour force participation rate was 75.4%.