In the 4th quarter, there were 7,200 job vacancies

The rate of job vacancies, i.e. the share of job vacancies in the total number of jobs, was 1.3% in the 4th quarter. For the third quarter in a row, the rate of job vacancies was the highest in administrative and support service activities (2.4%). It was the lowest in mining and quarrying and in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (0.1% in each).

The rise in the number of job vacancies was the highest in professional, scientific and technical activities, where there were 2.6 times more job vacancies than in the 4th quarter of 2013.

56% of vacant and occupied posts are in Harju county (including Tallinn), followed by Tartu county (11%) and Ida-Viru county (8%). The rate of job vacancies remained the highest in Harju county (1.7%) and the lowest in Hiiu, Saare and Põlva counties (0.5% in each).

By type of ownership, 26% of job vacancies were in the public sector and 74% were in the private sector, where enterprises with Estonian ownership held the biggest share. The rate of job vacancies was 1.3% in the public sector and 1.4% in the private sector. The public sector also includes companies owned by the state or the local government.

The movement of labour is characterised by labour turnover. In the 3rd quarter of 2014, a total of 89,000 employees were hired or left their jobs, which is a 9.6% increase compared to the same period of 2013. The largest increase in labour turnover compared to the 3rd quarter of 2013 occurred in agriculture, forestry and fishing and in construction (42.6% and 33.5%, respectively).

A job vacancy is a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied or becomes vacant when an employee leaves, and for which the employer is actively trying to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise, institution or organisation concerned.

The data are based on the job vacancies and labour turnover survey conducted by Statistics Estonia since 2005. In 2014, the sample included 12,267 enterprises, institutions and organisations; and the data of randomly selected units are imputed to the total population separately in each stratum.