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According to Statistics Estonia, in 2023, the gross hourly earnings of female employees were 13.1% smaller than the earnings of male employees. The gender pay gap decreased by 4.6 percentage points year on year.

Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that, in the first quarter, the labour market showed no signs of major changes in any direction. “There were 52,200 unemployed people in the first quarter, up by 5,100 from the fourth quarter of last year. This number is still significantly lower than in the first quarter of last year, when the number of unemployed people was very high,” noted Vassiljeva. The unemployment rate is the share of the unemployed in the labour force. The unemployment rate was 7.1% in the first quarter, which is 0.7 percentage points higher than in the last quarter

Sigrid Saagpakk, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the average monthly gross wages and salaries in 2024 were the highest in Tallinn (€2,325) and in Harju (€2,218) and Tartu (€1,995) counties. “Compared with 2023, the biggest increase in wages and salaries was seen in Hiiu (9.9%) and Ida-Viru (9.7%) counties. Wages and salaries rose by more than 6.5% in all Estonian counties,” the analyst stated. The highest average wages and salaries in 2024 were found in information and communication, at €3,484. “This was followed by financial and insurance activities (€3,127) and electricity, gas

Lauri Veski, the Consumer Price Statistics Service Manager at Statistics Estonia, said that the last time that the year-on-year increase in the consumer price index was at a similar level was a year ago, in January 2025, when the consumer price index rose by 3.9%. “The rise in the consumer price index for January 2026 compared with December was primarily influenced by electricity, food and alcoholic beverages. The exchange prices of electricity soared in January, so that the electricity price index was up by 22.2% compared with December. Food prices were up by 2.3% in January, with 11.1% more

Robert Müürsepp, the national accounts team lead at Statistics Estonia, said that the GDP, which had shown growth in the fourth quarter last year, was again down a little in the first quarter this year. “A month ago, we published a model-based flash estimate which suggested that the economy might be slightly improving. However, the flash estimate underestimated some irregular factors in the fourth quarter. Vehicle sales were exceptionally high in the fourth quarter in anticipation of the introduction of the motor vehicle tax from 2025. But the model could not fully foresee the significant

Johanna Linda Pihlak, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the turnover volume of enterprises engaged in the retail sale of automotive fuel grew by 15% year on year, despite the sharp increase in fuel prices. “One of the reasons was the uncertainty felt by consumers – fearing future price hikes, people started to stock up on fuel,” noted Pihlak. Compared with March 2025, the turnover volume of stores selling manufactured goods increased by 10%. At the same time, the turnover volume of grocery stores continued to decline in March and was down by 2% year on year. “The turnover volume of

Helle Bunder, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the increased output of manufacturing resulted primarily from the higher volume of production in the manufacture of wood. “In January, the output of the wood industry was up by 8.3% year on year. This was the first time since May 2022 that the output of this industry increased,” explained Bunder. In January, the volume of industrial production increased in more than half of manufacturing activities. Looking at the larger industries, there was an increase in output in the manufacture of wood (8.3%), fabricated metal products (5.9%)

According to Statistics Estonia, the young statistician’s grant named after Albert Pullerits bestowed for the first time this year was awarded Piret Avila for the Master’s work completed in Tallinn University.