Latvia’s jobless rate decreased to 7 percent in the third quarter of 2018 from 7.7 percent in the previous three month period. It was the lowest unemployment rate since the three months to September of 2008, as the number of unemployed decreased by 6.6 thousand from the previous quarter to 68.8 thousand and the number of employed rose by 10.5 thousand to 920.1 thousand. During the third quarter of 2018, Latvian jobless rate continued to be the highest among the Baltic States (5.2 percent in Estonia and 5.9 percent in Lithuania). A year ago, the unemployment rate was higher at 8.5 percent. Unemployment Rate in Latvia averaged 11.45 percent from 2002 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 21.30 percent in the first quarter of 2010 and a record low of 5.30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Unemployment Rate in Latvia is expected to be 8.10 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in Latvia to stand at 6.20 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Latvia Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 8.20 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.