According to the experts, the decrease in the number of jobseekers was influenced by a drop in the number of clients applying to the Employment Service (1.2% compared to September) and by the employment provided, with 26.3% more people taking part in active labour market policy measures than the month before.
„Despite the declining worker demand, the market situation remains better than a year ago. We can observe a lower monthly flow of registered clients and higher recruitment than last year,“ Jurgita Zemblytė, Head of the Monitoring and Analysis Division of the Employment Service, is quoted in the report.
According to the Employment Service data, 146.3 thousand people were looking for a job on 1 November, 1.7% less than a month earlier. Registered unemployment in the country stood at 8.2%, 0.1 percentage point lower than a month earlier. At the same time, unemployment rates fell in 34 of the country's 60 municipalities in October.
The most significant drops in employed clients were in education, accommodation and food services, agriculture, forestry and fishing. In total, 18,300 people started work last month, down by 11.7% compared to September.
In October, labour demand was 14.6% lower than in September, with employers registering 14.9 thousand job vacancies with the Employment Service. Compared to the same period last year, job vacancies were down by a fifth (4.2 thousand). The most significant contraction was the number of vacancies for skilled workers (-38.3%). The figure for unskilled workers was also down by 16.2%.
According to Ms Zemblytė, this autumn, demand for workers is decreasing due to postponed or delayed expansion plans of companies and, as usual, seasonality of jobs.
According to the Employment Service, on 1 November, there were 1.47 million insured/employed persons in the country, an increase of 7.5 thousand persons (0.5%) compared to the previous month. The number of employed persons increased in almost all sectors except accommodation and food services, construction, agriculture, mining and quarrying, and real estate operations.
