Stories of Ordinary Estonian Unemployment

Finding a job in Estonia is becoming every day harder, and young people with education cannot find their way to the labor market

“I have sent 30-40 applications and have received no invitations for an interview,” said to E24 20 years old Annika Ausmees who on Monday was at the office of unemployment insurance fund in Endla street.
She finished high-school in spring and has been looking for a job since then. She said that many of her friends are unemployed too.

Ausmees has applied for a job in customer service area but would accept other jobs as well. She is not planning to continue her studies though, for she is afraid of having to take a loan from bank.

24 years old Aljona studied sewing in a vocational education school worked on that field, until she was laid off last month. Now she too is looking for a job either on her profession or in customer service area.

Also among Aljona’s, who didn’t wish to reveal her surname, friends are many unemployed people or mothers of little children who cannot return to work after childcare leave.

21 years old Ivan Tamsalu, who studied in a vocational education school to become a cook has been unemployed already for eight months. After school he wasn’t interested in cookery anymore and he worked in a warehouse. After that he joined the army and when he was let out from it in March and returned to work he was laid off right the same day.

He went to register himself as unemployed on Monday because he had been looking for a job from internet until now. He would like to find a job in a warehouse again. He said that among his friends there are at least ten unemployed.

The Statistical Office considers as young people at the age of 15-24, however, when assessing the unemployment rate, young people who are studying are not being considered. Unemployment rate is slightly higher among male and non – Estonians, nevertheless, the data by the statistical office does not show exactly how many non – Estonians and women are there among unemployed.

For young unemployed the biggest problem is education, or to be precise, the lack of it. One of the biggest problems is that many young unemployed do not have neither higher education nor vocational skills.

The Minister of Education, Tõnis Lukas, said that he is constantly working on the problem of unemployment among young. According to his words, there is a project being carried out at the moment, to redirect 150 million EEK from European Social Fund for supporting young people who have passed half or more of the curriculum at university or vocational education school, but then interrupted their studies to return and finish their education.

Then they would be able to go back to the labour market in the new rising conditions of the market with better education.

As a separate problem there are young who halve only basic education or not even that. The Minister of Education said that the current educational system waits for them to continue their education and there is nothing new planned for them.

However, the Unemployment Insurance Fund has a program called Apprentice coming up next year for them and young with general secondary education.

According to the words of the service manager of the institution, Karin Andre, the aim of the program is to give the young an opportunity to acquire practical skills working in the enterprise by fulfilling certain tasks. And  in addition to that they would still acquire theoretical skills at school.
Lukas also thought that at least until the age of 25 a young should study or actively acquire additional knowledge to manage better in the future. According to him, the rate of unemployment is the lowest among people with higher education.

(Here you can find the original story in Estonian)