The number of unemployed in Estonia in the third quarter of 2009 reached its highest level since the country regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, dpa quoted official data as releasing today. Statistics Estonia said the unemployment rate rose to 14.6 per cent in the third quarter, or 102,000 people of a total population of about 1.3 million. That figure is a jump from a previous record of 13.5 per cent in the second quarter. There was evidence that the level of unemployment was dampening jobseekers" hopes, particularly among men, the statistics office said. "The number of discouraged persons has started to increase. In the third quarter 11,000 persons had stopped seeking a job because they did not expect to find one," the office said. Demographic trends are making it harder for young people born since Estonia regained its independence to find work. "At the same time when the (baby-boom generation) of the singing revolution of Estonia (born at the end of the 1980s) are in transition from school to labour market, the generation of students replacing them is already much smaller. Finding a job is more and more difficult for young people," the statistics office said. Natalia Viilmann, an economist at the Estonian central bank, said there was some good news in the data. "The number of participants in the workforce increased by approximately 16,000 people during the quarter," she said. "According to economic forecasts there should be positive growth figures by the end of the first half of 2010, but new jobs are created only after substantial lag times," Viilmann said. "Therefore, the unemployment rate will continue to rise in 2010, but at a much slower pace." EU member Estonia has been hit hard by the global economic crisis after a decade of breakneck growth. The economy is expected to contract by around 14 per cent in 2009, and the government has implemented an austerity regime as part of its efforts to join the eurozone in 2011.
