Data from Statistics Estonia shows that in the second quarter of 2025, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent, the employment rate was 68.9 percent, and the labour force participation rate was 74.8 percent.

The number of employed persons in the second quarter of this year was at 697,300. This is 9,200 fewer than a year earlier, but 15,700 more than in the first quarter.

 "Compared with the first quarter, labour market indicators have improved, but remain below the figures for the second quarter of 2024," said Tea Vassiljeva, analyst at Statistics Estonia.

The analyst noted that while the unemployment rate in the second quarter (7.8 percent) was slightly higher than in 2024's second quarter (7.6 percent), it was 0.8 percentage points lower than in the first quarter of 2025.

"The unemployment rate for men (8.4 percent) was higher than that for women (7.2 percent). There were a total of 59,200 unemployed persons in the second quarter, which is 5,000 fewer than in the previous quarter," Vassiljeva said.

"Of the unemployed in the second quarter, 32,300 were men and 26,800 were women. The number of unemployed individuals decreased in the second quarter compared with the first quarter in all regions except Ida-Viru county, where a slight increase was observed," she added.

The number of employed persons increased year on year, mostly in Harju county

"The employment rate of 68.9% was 0.8 percentage points lower than a year earlier, but 1.5 percentage points higher than in the first quarter of this year," the analyst said. 

Unemployment rising among young people

Employment figures for 15–24-year-olds fell compared with both the second quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

Although this year there are more young people aged 15–24 than a year ago, the number of employed young people declined by 4,600 in the second quarter compared with the same period last year. 

"The youth employment rate of 32.3 percent was 4.4 percentage points lower than a year ago and 1.8 percentage points lower than in the first quarter of this year," the analyst said, adding that the decline was particularly sharp among young women, namely -7.5 percentage points year on year and -2.6 percentage points compared with the first quarter of 2025.

The youth unemployment rate was high (25.4 percent), which is 2.8 percentage points higher than in the second quarter of last year and 6.6 percentage points higher than in the first quarter of this year.

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