5th NORDIC-BALTIC CONFERENCE IN REGIONAL SCIENCE
GLOBAL-LOCAL INTERPLAY IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION
Pärnu, Estonia, October 1-4, 1998

Raul Eamets
Department of Economics
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
University of Tartu
Lossi 3, Tartu, EE2400, Estonia
Tel.: 372 7 465 645
E-mail: eam@cie.ut.ee

The aim of this paper is to give a short overview of the competitiveness of the Estonian labour force as compared to other Eastern European countries. We have used different statistical databases, varying from the OECD labour market database to those obtained from labour force surveys carried out in Estonia.

Estonia’s closest neighbours Latvia and Lithuania and Estonian’s companions on the way towards the European Union - Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovenia are observed. From the so-called second division of EU accession of Eastern Europe Romanian data have been analysed. Different aspects of employment e.g. employment by industries, gender, education, ownership and age are examined in these countries. As a result we can bring out as an advantage of Estonia the fact that quick restructuring has taken place in economy, as far as employment is concerned. Compared to the other Baltic countries, Estonia is the country where changes in employment structure by industry have been fastest during the last years, approaching the average indicators of the European Union.

In the second part of paper unemployment data of above-mentioned countries are observed. Finally author pointed out negative and positive aspects of Estonian labour market development in the framework of other Central and Eastern Europe countries.

Keywords: transition economies, labour markets in CEEC, unemployment, structural changes of employment.