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This was the seventh time that Statistics Estonia was commissioned by the Education and Youth Board to analyse the tax contribution of international students who work in Estonia during and after their studies. In the academic year 2024/2025, there were 3,951 international students in Estonia. 3,418 of them had an Estonian personal identification code and their labour market participation could be studied using pseudonymised codes. 1,752 (51%) of the analysed students worked in Estonia while studying. The study showed that long-term work is predominant among both local and international

Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia, explained that the unemployment rate, i.e. the share of the unemployed in the labour force, was 7.5% last year, which is just 0.1 percentage points lower than in 2024. In 2025, the average number of the unemployed was 56,200 – this is down by 900 from the year before. Unemployment grew the most among young men “Unemployment decreased among women but increased among men. Women’s unemployment rate, which was 7.5% in 2024, dropped to 6.6% in 2025. As for men, their unemployment rate grew by 0.7 percentage points compared with 2024 and reached 8.3% as

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

Robert Müürsepp, the National Accounts Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that GDP growth was last over 2% in the first quarter of 2022. “GDP increased for the fourth quarter in a row,” he said. “In the case of most economic activities, their contribution to GDP in the first quarter was positive, although mostly modest,” added Müürsepp. He said that, for the third consecutive quarter, manufacturing was the biggest driver of economic growth as its value added was up by 7%. Administrative and support service activities also had a significant impact with a 11.6% increase in value added

Robert Müürsepp, the National Accounts Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that the Estonian economy grew for the fifth quarter in a row. “In the second quarter, two thirds of the economic activities made a positive contribution to the GDP. Similarly to the first quarter, manufacturing was the biggest driver of economic growth as its value added grew by 6.5%. It was followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing where the increase in value added was 168% due to the exceptionally low reference base of last year. In construction, value added was up by 7.5%,” said Müürsepp. A considerable

The total number of vacant and occupied posts in the second quarter was 590,408 – this is 0.9% less than in the same quarter of 2025. The number of vacant posts was the highest in education (1,558), public administration and defence, compulsory social security (1,274), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (1,029), and manufacturing (968). “Looking at the labour market as a whole, employment did not increase in the second quarter. The Labour Force Survey data published in August showed a decline in the unemployment rate, but there was no comparable rise in

“In 2025, average gross hourly wages were 13 euros for men and 11.4 euros for women, meaning that women’s wages were 12.2% lower. This means that the gender pay gap in Estonia was the narrowest ever,” said Krista Vaikmets, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia. She added that the gender pay gap has decreased by 10.7 percentage points in the last 15 years. Wage inequality is the greatest in financial and insurance activities Looking at individual economic activities, the indicators vary. “In 2025, the gender pay gap was the biggest in financial and insurance activities (23.6%), wholesale and

“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

Robert Müürsepp, the National Accounts Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that 2025 was a better year for the Estonian economy than the previous two years. “The GDP showed growth in the last three quarters, and the annual GDP growth was 0.6%,” he added. Manufacturing was the biggest contributor to economic growth in Q4 Similarly to the third quarter, the contribution of most economic activities to the GDP remained modest. Manufacturing was the biggest positive contributor, as its value added increased by 13.3%. Information and communication also had a significant impact – its value

In the second quarter of 2025, the average monthly gross wages and salaries were the highest in Tallinn (€2,479), in Harju county (€2,365), and in Tartu county (€2,175). “Compared with the second quarter of last year, the biggest increase in wages and salaries was seen in Põlva county (7.7%) and Rapla county (7%). The smallest wage increase was registered in Ida-Viru county (3.8%),” said Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia. In this year's second quarter, the average monthly gross wages and salaries were the highest in information and communication (€3,704), financial and insurance