Economists: In the negotiations on the salary level, the cards are in the hands of the workers

In the third quarter of 2018, the unemployment rate in Latvia was 7.0%, according to the results of the Labor Force Survey of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB). Compared to the previous quarter, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.7 percentage points, while during the year it was 1.5 percentage points. Experts estimate that these changes will affect businesses and workers in the labor market.

With rapid economic growth, the unemployment rate in the third quarter continued to fall sharply, and the number of people employed in the economy grew strongly. According to the Ministry of Finance, the most important role that accelerated the growth of the economy was the rapid development of the economy, which created a growing demand for workers, and the number of employees in the domestic economy in the third quarter was 1.9% or 17.2 thousand more than before year, with the same pace of growth in the first half of the year.

With continued economic growth, demand for labor continues to rise, while labor force reserves are gradually decreasing. The labor market is becoming "warmer". "Increasingly, matching workers with job specifics and offering compensation is a real challenge for employers. In a situation where the number of unemployed decreases, but the number of jobs increases, the number of applicants for the competition is decreasing, which means that in the negotiations on the level of salaries and the card's salary is unequivocal in the hands of the workers, "says Agnes Buceniece, senior economist at Svedbank.