The unemployment rate was 7.5% last year
According to Statistics Estonia, in 2025, the unemployment rate was 7.5%, the employment rate was 68.5%, and the labour force participation rate was 74.1%.
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 the average of 2025,” noted Vassiljeva.
“Last year, the biggest rise in unemployment was seen among young men aged 15–24, which led to an overall increase in youth unemployment,” she said. The annual average youth unemployment rate in 2025 was 20.7%, up by 1.6 percentage points from the year before. The unemployment rate of young men was 22.5% – it means an increase of 3.6 percentage points compared with 2024. The unemployment rate of young women (18.8%) fell by 0.5 percentage points compared with 2024.
The analyst said that unemployment indicators for other age groups were mostly unchanged or declined year on year. “In age group 50–74, the unemployment rate (5.7%) was the same as in 2024. The unemployment rate for 25–49-year-olds (6.7%) was down by 0.4 percentage points in 2025 year on year. Still, a similar trend can be noticed where unemployment grows among men and falls among women,” said Vassiljeva.
More and more unemployed people say that they struggle to manage
There was a decrease in the number of people who have been unemployed for less than six months, and a slight increase in the number of people who have been unemployed for 6–11 months. The number of people who have been unemployed for a year or more remained at the same level. “We can see that, in recent years, there has been a gradual increase in the share of those unemployed people who say that they struggle to make ends meet. In 2022, about 1 in 4 unemployed persons (25.2%) said that they were managing poorly or rather poorly, whereas by 2025 almost a third (31.7%) of the unemployed described their situation this way,” added Vassiljeva.
Employment decreased similarly to unemployment. In 2025, the average number of employed people was 693,100, falling by 5,500 compared with the year before. The employment rate (68.5%) was down by 0.4 percentage points from 2024, and the decline was similar for both women and men.
Vassiljeva said that there were some differences between women and men in specific age groups. Among 15–24-year-olds, the employment rate for women was 34.3% and decreased by 3.1 percentage points compared with the year before. The employment rate for 15–24-year-old men was mostly unchanged.
“In age group 25–49, the employment rate for men fell by 1.2 percentage points and was 87.2% in 2025,” she noted. “For women in this age group, the employment rate was 84.1% last year, making it 1.1 percentage points higher than in 2024,” Vassiljeva added. In age group 50–74, employment decreased among women last year.
Looking at economic activities, in 2025, the decrease in employment in absolute figures was the biggest in manufacturing, education and construction. The number of employed people was up in transportation and storage, administrative and support service activities, human health and social work activities, and accommodation and food service activities.
Change in number of employed persons in 2025 compared with 2024 by economic activity, %
| Economic activity | Change |
|---|---|
| Administrative and support service activities | 13.0 |
| Transportation and storage | 7.5 |
| Other service activities | 6.4 |
| Accommodation and food service activities | 5.8 |
| Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | 5.6 |
| Human health and social work activities | 4.4 |
| Information and communication | 0.5 |
| Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles | -0.2 |
| Public administration and defence; compulsory social security | -1.3 |
| Real estate activities | -2.4 |
| Education | -2.7 |
| Professional, scientific and technical activities | -2.8 |
| Manufacturing | -3.4 |
| Construction | -4.3 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | -8.1 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -8.9 |
| Financial and insurance activities | -11.6 |
| Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities | -23.4 |
| Mining and quarrying | -28.0 |
Regionally, employment was down in Valga, Viljandi, Põlva and Lääne counties. The number of employed people increased in Harju county (excluding Tallinn) and also in Rapla, Lääne-Viru and Pärnu counties.
There was a decrease in labour force in 2025
The labour force participation rate, which shows the share of the labour force in the working-age population, was 74.1% in 2025 – down by 0.5 percentage points from 2024. There was a comparable increase in the share of the economically inactive population. “It means that, in addition to the decline in working-age population, there was also a decrease in the labour force,” said Vassiljeva. The decrease in labour force was primarily due to women, as their labour force participation rate decreased and there was a higher share of economically inactive women (up by 1.1 percentage points year on year). At the same time, the labour force participation rate of men increased by 0.2 percentage points last year. “The overall decline in employment rate was similar for men and women, but men who lost their job remained economically active and were among the unemployed, while women in a similar position often left the labour market,” she said.
The labour market indicators for the fourth quarter of 2025 followed the same trend as the annual indicators. The unemployment rate in the fourth quarter was 6.4%, down by one percentage point from the fourth quarter of 2024. The employment rate (68.1%) was 0.4 percentage points lower quarter on quarter. The labour force participation rate (72.7%) was 1.3 percentage points lower than in the same quarter of 2024.
Two sources can be used to monitor unemployment trends: the register data of the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Estonian Labour Force Survey data collected by Statistics Estonia. Although both sources describe the same phenomenon, there are some methodological differences. See here for more information (in Estonian).
The Labour Force Survey statistics cover permanent residents of Estonia who live or plan to live in Estonia for at least a year or more.
A percentage is a part of a whole; a percentage value is indicated by the percent sign (%). A percentage point is the difference between percentages.
Data as at 16 February 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.
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For further information:
Susann Kivi
Media Relations Manager
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 5696 6484
press [at] stat.ee (press[at]stat[dot]ee)