🇱🇻 Latvia’s “Low Unemployment” Is Hiding a Shrinking Labour Force
Core facts
October unemployment stayed flat at 6.8%, with no real monthly change.
The gap remains structural: men 8.0%, women 5.7%.
Total unemployed: 65.7k, up +3.3k vs October 2024.
But the real shift is elsewhere: the share of people outside the labour force (15–74) keeps growing.
What’s happening
Latvia now counts potential workforce up to age 74, making visible a large group of economically inactive residents — mainly older women who are not working and not seeking work. They are included in population statistics, but not counted as unemployed.
As a result:
Women appear to have lower unemployment not because they find jobs faster, but because many exit the labour market entirely.
Men stay economically active longer, remain “inside the calculation,” and therefore show higher unemployment rates.
Why it matters
Latvia can show low unemployment while actually losing labour capacity. The workforce is thinning due to aging and early exit from employment, not because jobs are abundant.
The signal
👉 Latvia doesn’t have a unemployment problem — it has a labour force problem.
Scope
This insight covers only Latvian residents and domestic labour forces. Migration and foreign workers are not included.
Source
CSP (October 2025 monthly labour estimates).BDW © 2025 | balticfocus.org/
Image: photos/photo_63@23-11-2025_11-37-12.jpg