It is worth noting that this refers to occupied jobs only. The State and undertakers cannot crank out jobs at twice the speed, but people in Latvia remained as many as remained. Thus, the shrinking of occupied jobs evidences of shortage of wage – workers in Latvia rather than of the lack of jobs in Latvia.
Generally, in the second quarter of this year in the 2-miilion country the number of jobs amounted to 891.2 thousand. Jobs in Latvia are provided predominantly by the private sector — more than 600 thousand of employed. Almost one third of the population are employed in the public sector, which is shrinking at the same speed as the private one.
Less people and more chiefs. Interestingly that the quickest growth of the occupied jobs was recorded amid managers — they have increased in number by 2.5 percent. While the biggest job cuts was recorded amid ‘qualified workers and craftsmen’, which number shrank by 7.4 percent.
Either our workers would in unison turn into working aristocrats, or this is such a motivation –employees would stay where they are, but they would receive new business cards with a caption ‘Manager’, ‘Director’, ‘Department Director’, ‘Secretary General’ etc. In general, be called whatever makes you happy, but do not apply for a rise in pay.
This is as far as positions are concerned. As to the trades, then by this year’s tradition the biggest losses are sustained by the construction site supervisors, brick masons, finishers and representatives of other building trades. The number of jobs in construction over the year shrank by 10.2 percent. The closely related to the construction industry mining industry and quarrying is only slightly behind, where the number of occupied jobs decreased by 9 percent.
Unemployed construction site supervisors and painters are closely following the bodily movements of civil servants from the Ministry of Finance, who are engaged in lingering negotiations with Brussels on the allocation of new portion of European money. This money, mostly, is channelled to the construction and renovation of infrastructure facilities, their (finances) appearance is expected in the coming months. And then the number of jobs at construction sites, as well as at enterprises engaged in the production of building materials, would grow again. And contractors in their interviews to the Latvian news media would change song – from complaints of scarcity of construction sites they would transfer to moans over scarcity of labour.
