BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

The human element is here to stay in the HR business

TALLINN - “As I see it, collecting data for a CV (Curriculum Vitae) will become more automated in the future. Perhaps Google will take a leading role in this. Some companies already use Linkedin and Facebook to find candidates for vacant jobs.”
The person speaking is Heikko Gross, marketing director of CV Online, the Estonian company which since 1997 has been active in online recruitment. The first years saw a major expansion into many neighboring countries. Between 1998 and 1999, turnover multiplied 15 times.  

CV Online offers jobseekers CV posting (for free), CV consultation and courses for successful job applications. A single consultation costs eight euros. If you wish to get a good understanding of how to write a good CV, what the main mistakes are and how an employer reads your CV, you may attend a course for 23 euros. “But it is a problem that many job seekers are not willing to pay the price for a course,” says Gross. “It is a question of whether you wish to spend your money buying a fish, or a fishing rod!” His personal experience says that those who are already working and are in a better financial position are generally more willing to spend money on job seeking advice.

Central bank : employees should calm their wage expectations

Estonian central bank Eesti Pank says in its new labour market overview that employees should calm down their over-optimistic wage claims.

Referring to the recent strikes where trade unions demanded higher wages, Eesti Pank economist Natalja Viilmann said that the current economic environemnt was too uncertain to allow excessive wage claims.

She said it could increase inflationary pressure and threaten the economic balance.

The central bank’s latest Labour Market Review reveals that employment soared in comparison with the recent past and also with other European countries.

The labour participation rate posted a record and unemployment declined notably. At the same time, the share of the long-term unemployed among the unemployed increased, making up about 60 percent by the end of 2011.

The inhibition in economic growth at the end of 2011 may increase the share of the long-term unemployed even more in the future.

A quarter of construction workers in Estonia receive unreported wages

TALLINN - After holding extensive raids on 66 construction sites on Tuesday and Wednesday, Estonian Tax and Customs Board stated that nearly a quarter of construction workers in Estonia receive unreported wages, National Broadcasting reports.

A total of 130 state officials asked nearly a 1,000 people who were present at the construction sites whether and how their work relations have been documented.

Nearly 40 people on 14 sites ran away from tax officials during the raid. Tax Board's construction sphere audits manager Rauno Ellermaa said that such fleeing indicates clearly that employers of these people have built their business on tax fraud.

Illegal workers from Bulgaria, Ukraine and Latvia were also ascertained at the sites and the Tax Board informed the corresponding authorities.

Last year, the state was deprived of at last 40 million euros of tax money in the construction sphere. "Over a quarter of construction companies do not comply with their tax obligations properly and there is room for development here," said Tax and Customs board audit department head Kaido Lemendik.

Unemployment up in Q4

In line with the increasingly grave unemployment numbers seen in most of the European economies, Estonia’s unemployment numbers too made an upward swing in the final quarter of 2011, data from Statistics Estonia revealed last week.

According to the data of the Labour Force Survey, the number of persons without a job in this tiny Baltic country in the fourth quarter was 79,000 and the unemployment rate was 11.4%. The estimated number of unemployed persons in the preceding quarter was 77,000 -- increased by 2,000 persons in the final quarter. However the unemployment rate was smaller compared to the corresponding quarter of 2010 when the figure stood at 13.6%. At the end of 2011 the unemployment slightly increased, but the annual average number of unemployed persons still decreased.

In the record year for unemployment, in 2010, the unemployed persons numbered 116,000. The unemployment rate of 12.5% in 2011 was by 4.4% smaller compared to the year before. This was the largest fall of unemployment during the last 20 years.

The unemployment, which during the economic crisis increased more rapidly among men, during the previous year also decreased more among men and the difference between the unemployment rate of men and that of women decreased to the level of earlier years.

The need for Estonian people for help at record level in 9 months

In the first three quarters of last year, the number of people who in Estonia who received subsistence benefits and the amount of money paid for the benefits grew to the highest level in five years, LETA/Postimees writes.

Last year, an average of 14,000 subsistence benefit applications were satisfied in Estonia every month. In the first quarter 47,242 applications for 7.6 million euros, in the second quarter 42,996 applications for 6.2 million euros and in the third quarter 35,410 applications for 4.8 million euros were satisfied.

In the first three quarters of last year, 990 applications more were satisfied than at the same time a year ago, Postimees mediates social ministry statistics.

"In 2009 and 2010, the number of applications surged and last year the number stabilised," said social ministry welfare department senior specialist Marek Atonen.

Atonen pointed out as a positive factor that according to the latest data of 2011, people submitted 2% less subsistence benefit applications than a year earlier but that does not mean a step towards easing of the problem since the number of people with subsistence problems is kept high by the long-term jobless.

"In 2012, major changes in the total number of benefit recipients or the sums is not forecast," said Atonen.

State Duma ratifies Estonian-Russian pension agreement

The Russian State Duma ratified last week the pension insurance cooperation agreement between Estonia and Russia, LETA/National Broadcasting reports, citing State Duma homepage.

Russian healthcare and social development deputy minister Juri Voronin said that the agreement corresponds to the interests of Russia and its co-nationals who live in the Estonian territory.

According to the new pension agreement between the states, concluded in July last year, both states pay pension irrespective of on which country's territory a person lives. Russian military pensioners who have so far received a pension from Russia for serving in the armed forces, have the right to get a pension from Estonia for years worked in Estonia.

The Estonian Riigikogu ratified the agreement in September.

Juhan Tere

Employment in Estonia grew by 8.9% in Q2; largest increase in EU

The number of people employed in Latvia increased by 2.8% in the third quarter this year from the same period of 2010, which was the second largest increase across the European Union, the EU statistical office Eurostat reports. Employment has increased the most in Estonia – 8.9%, Latvia and Sweden – 2.1%, and Lithuania – 2%, writes LETA.

According to the latest Eurostat data, a total of 222.9 million people were employed in the EU in the third quarter, including 146.9 million in the euro area.

In the EU, employment decreased 0.1% year-on-year in the third quarter, whereas the eurozone recorded a 0.2% rise.

The most notable decreases in employment were registered in Greece – 7.6%, Romania – 4.6%, and Bulgaria – 3.2%.

Compared to the second quarter, employment in the EU and eurozone alike decreased 0.1%.

The largest increases were registered in Estonia – 1.9%, and Hungary – 0.5%.

Employment in Latvia remained unchanged, whereas Lithuania recorded the EU's steepest reduction in employment of 1.8%.

Nina Kolyako

Job cuts to come in Sweden + Baltic states

STOCKHOLM - Swedbank is to cut 600 jobs in Sweden and the Baltic states and take a 330 million crown ($48 million) restructuring charge in the fourth quarter, the bank's chief financial officer said on Tuesday.

After getting slammed by the 2009 financial crisis because of its exposure to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Swedbank has recovered relatively quickly and now has one of the highest levels of capital among banks in Europe.

Goran Bronner, the bank's chief financial officer, told Reuters about the job cuts two days after Swedbank suffered a big outflow of funds in Latvia when people panicked by rumours of troubles at Swedish banks rushed to pull cash out of their accounts. The bank has said the panic has now calmed.

Bronner told Reuters that some 300 jobs in the Baltics and a similar number in Sweden would have to go. Swedbank is the latest in a string of European banks that have been forced to slash staff to keep costs under control.

"The actions taken are going according to plan, and Swedbank will record a small restructuring charge of about 330 million crowns in the fourth quarter," he said.

That would be about 8 percent of the expected operating profit in that quarter, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine smart estimates, which give a greater weighting to analysts with better track records. The bank employs a total 17,000 people.

Teachers’ wages in Estonia will increase in 2013 : Education minister

The state budget for 2013 has to include a wage increase for teachers, Estonian education minister Jaak Aaviksoo said while speaking in the Riigikogu finance committee, LETA/Postimees cited national television.

“We are working in the name of 2013 and the budget that will determine the year after the next will certainly not cope without a wage increase for teachers,” said Aaviksoo.

He said that the wage increase should be considerable but was unwilling to say how big exactly.

“It depends on many aspects, even Greece, how big the result will be,” he said.

Juhan Tere

Estonians from Narva work in Russian ports

Approximately 1,000 Estonians from city Narva work in Russian St. Petersburg-based companies; they are welcome in Ust Luga port and in new vehicle part construction plants, the sea news portal Jura reports.

In the upcoming years, as expected, the region will need about 50,000 workers, writes LETA.

Ust Luga port will have new terminals and new companies will be created in the regions.

The Narva City Employment Commission Chairman Vadim Orlov told about such prospects for the Estonian workers. He tried and found new ways for the inhabitants of this city to find new jobs in the Russian labor market.

Juhan Tere

Unemployed workers live only for present

Workers laid off in spring from Tootsi briquette factory say they are not interested in returning to work as their unemployment fund benefits continue to run. The mayor of the municipality in Pärnu County says he is mystified by their attitude.

Tootsi municipality says it has done everything in its power to help the laid off workers - it tried to attract new employers and introduced bus routes to neighboring municipalities. But many of the laid off workers are still unemployed.

"Only a few of them have found work, as the companies that have pledged to come here have not come but above all we have received assistance from enterprises in the region in putting people to work," said municipality elder Kalev Kaljuste on ERR radio.

One of the companies in the region, Säästke OÜ, has hired 20 Tootsi people. The other is the Wendre AS production outlet in Vändra, where all of the women workers could have been re-employed - except they did not accept the offer.

Kaljuste said many are not interested in returning to work. At Wendre, he said, "we held an open house and their personnel director and manufacturing director were there. And we talked about the possibility of them getting a job and wage conditions. It's a company that is very competitive and honest both at the Estonian and Pärnu level."

Eesti in brief : 20th October 2011

A public poll by Turu-uuringute indicated that 58 percent of Estonian people do not support Estonia’s participation in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), reports Postimees Online. Opposition to it is equal among Estonians and non-Estonians, 57 and 59 percent, respectively. Twenty-eight percent were for joining the EFSF and 14 percent were unable to state their opinion, said political activist Anti Poolamets, who commissioned the poll, adding that, obviously, the Riigikogu made the decision to join the facility too hastily. The poll also inquired about the attitude towards the euro. Fifty-five percent of the respondents said that they would not support the euro if Estonia had to make the decision to join it now. Thirty-seven percent would still be for the euro. Thirty-one percent of the polled said that the euro has done more harm than good to Estonia; forty-six percent think the euro has done both good and harm, and 17 percent were convinced that euro has done more good than harm. 998 people were polled.

Around two hundred people convened for a demonstration called “Occupy Tallinn” at Tallinn’s Vabaduse Square on Oct. 15 to protest against the rule of banks and decisions of state leaders. This went on alongside with thousands of other people around the world who attended similar demonstrations at the same time, reports Postimees. The demonstration in Tallinn was a peaceful one. One of the initiators, Peeter Proos, explained that one of the aims of the action, that protested against supporting debt-ridden Greece, the decisions of Estonian politicians and the rule of banks, is to “distribute information to people about who, and how, manages our state. The other aim is to let people know how to start acting themselves.” “People have to start speaking up in politics, otherwise, there is no point in criticizing,” he said. In 82 countries around the world, in 950 cities, similar demonstrations took place.

According to the unemployment insurance fund, the number of registered unemployed continues to decline, but the rate of improvement is slowing down, reports bbn.ee. Last week, the number fell by 19 people, which is the lowest count for a long time. In comparison, during the summer months, the number of registered unemployed was falling between 600 and 900 people per week. 1,590 new people were registered as unemployed during the week. Of them, 162 had been made redundant by their employers. A representative of the unemployment insurance fund said that it is only expected that because of seasonal reasons, registered unemployment is not falling as quickly any more. “Seasonal summer jobs are now over and the unemployed have become more active,” said the rep. All in all, the unemployment insurance fund has 46,503 people on its list, which represents 7.2 percent of the total employable population. The fund is advertising 5,929 vacancies in Estonia and 700 abroad.

Estonian workers earn nice pensions from Finland

A five-year stint in Finland can earn an Estonian worker a pension equivalent to that from life-time of work back home!

Five years in a well-paid job in Finland can earn an Estonian worker as much pension compensation as an entire working career in Estonia would bring him, the Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht reported on Wednesday of last week.
      According to the paper, an average pension in Estonia is EUR 280 per month.
      In the comparison calculation, for earnings in Finland a sum of EUR 2,940 was used, which was the average monthly salary of a Finnish wage earner in 2009.
      An earnings-related pension from Finland is paid anywhere in the world.
     
At the Finnish Centre for Pensions, the newspaper's calculations are regarded as credible.
      “If someone over the age of 53 works here, we’re getting quite close. Younger people than that would have to work here for six years”, says Outi Lehmus, Head of the Department for International Pension Matters.
      Lehmus calculates that if someone over the age of 63 works in Finland, in just five years he or she will amass an already much higher pension of around EUR 600. 

Estonia average wages & salaries rise in Q2

Statistics.ee

Average monthly gross wages and salaries of Estonian employees increased for the fifth consecutive quarter in the second quarter, data released by Statistics Estonia showed Tuesday.

Average monthly gross wages and salaries increased 4.2 percent year-on-year to EUR 857 in the second quarter. Average monthly earnings rose for the fifth quarter in a row.

Meanwhile, real wages, which takes into account the influence of the change in the consumer price index, decreased 1 percent annually in the three-month period, marking the 11th consecutive fall.

At the same time, the average hourly gross wages and salaries grew 4.8 percent on an annual basis to EUR 5.08 during the quarter.

Estonia has to comply with recommendations from the EC and OECD

The board of the Confederation of Trade Unions stated on Tuesday that Riigikogu will have to start making sure before decision-making that proposals put on vote would be in compliance with the recommendations to Estonia for guaranteeing balanced socio-economic development, writes Äripäev.ee/LETA.

The trade union leaders convened on Tuesday in order to discuss two decisions that were adopted in Riigikogu last week – on lowering income tax and abolishing land tax on land property that is under homes. The first of which was stated to be directly in opposition to the European Commission’s positions and the second is not in line with recommendations from OECD to Estonia.

In the beginning of June, the European Commission recommended Estonia to first and foremost lower the tax burden for people with low and medium-sized incomes and to decrease social taxes so that the budgetary revenue would not decline.

“If the income tax for all people is to fall uniformly, by one per cent, employees earning high wages would gain the most from this move while revenue to the State budget would fall significantly,” noted the chairman of the Estonian Confederation of Trade Unions Harri Taliga. He pointed out that the subsistence of low-income citizens will not improve due to that step while they would suffer from the decline in the volume of social services that are financed from tax revenue.

Baltics lead EU in employment growth

TALLINN - The latest figures from Eurostat have revealed that Estonia and Latvia top the EU in employment growth figures, standing in sharp contrast to the situation last year.

Estonia saw by far the largest growth in employment compared to the year before, with the first quarter figures up by a staggering 6.5%. Latvia saw the second highest growth at 3%, while Lithuania was slighty above average with 1% growth.

The statistics mark a drastic turnaround from this time last year, when the three Baltic states were grappling with the largest drop in employment rates in the EU.

Eurostat, the EU's official statistics agency, found that overall emoployment rates in the EU were slightly up at +0.3% and exactly even when compared to the previous quarter.

Greece suffered from the largest drop in employment year-on-year, with employment down -5%. Bulgaria had the second largest drop at -3.5%, followed by Romania at -2.7%.

At the top of the list, Sweden and Slovakia followed Latvia with +2.8% and +2.2% respectively.

Estonia wages & salaries rose In 2010

Wages and salaries of Estonian employees increased in 2010, after falling in the previous month, data released by Statistics Estonia showed Friday.

The annual average monthly gross wages and salaries increased 1.1 percent annually to EUR 792 in 2010. In 2009, monthly gross wages and salaries had decreased for the first time in 16 years. Monthly wages and salaries in mining and quarrying climbed 11.6 percent during the year, marking the biggest growth.

At the same time, hourly gross wages and salaries dropped 0.4 percent to EUR 4.78 during the year. Hourly gross wages and salaries in professional, scientific and technical activities rose 6.4 percent, while in real estate activities they fell 15.8 percent.

Employment rate has failed to recover and consumers are still cautious

Retail banking director of Swedbank Estonia Ulla Ilisson stated that despite positive economic growth and exports numbers, the employment rate has failed to recover as fast and consumers are still cautious, writes LETA/National Broadcasting.

“As for the employment rate, /…/ there is no breakthrough in trends, people do not really believe that the situation has improved,” she said.

According to Ilisson, customers of the bank have become cautious and are increasingly saving money. In the first three months of this year, the savings volumes grew by nearly 4% in the year-on-year comparison. “This is a major growth,” she noted.

The bank estimates that on one hand this trend is caused by the transition to the euro and the related fears concerning price growth, on the other hand this is caused by the recent experience with the economic crisis.

“The crisis has made many people understand the importance of having savings. And this is undoubtedly a very important notion in our society,” said Ilisson.

Consumers’ cautiousness is also clearly reflected on the real estate market. “People are not prepared to make decisions concerning their housing. Customers are more frequently taking small loans and credit cards while there is no clear invigoration in the segment of housing loans,” described Ilisson.

According to Swedbank, the volume of small loans grew by 17% in April in the year-on-year comparison and the growth in credit cards was 22%. The increase in new loans in total, on the other hand, decelerated a little – both in the segment of housing loans and in individuals’ car leasing contracts.

Juhan Tere

Amount of job offers back at boom era level in Estonia in April

Job search portal CV Keskus CEO Paavo Heil said that the amount of job offers posted in the portal has been very big at the start of this yarn and figures are comparable to the year 2007, when nearly 40,000 new job offers were posted in CV Keskus, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

The amount of offers is the biggest in customer service, followed by sales and then industry and production.

In the first 4 months, the portal has published nearly 12,000 job offers versus 4,400 at the same time in 2009 and 7,100 in 2010.

While in the first four months of 2009, job-seekers competed for new jobs via CV Keskus on 203,000 occasions, last year the figure was 289,000 and this year already 337,000 times.

Juhan Tere

Estonian Unions boost demand for July minimum-wage increase

Estonian trade unions want a 17 percent increase in the minimum wage from July, raising their earlier demand because of accelerating inflation.

The Confederation of Estonian Trade Unions wants employers to agree to a minimum gross wage of 325 euros ($483), compared with 278 euros now and the 320 euros it sought in September, the workers’ group said on its website today. The average monthly gross wage was 814 euros in the fourth quarter.

"Almost all European countries raised minimum wage levels in January," Chairman Harri Taliga said in the statement. "Estonia, as a nation with one of the fastest growth rates, has been left in a rather embarrassing position -- only three European countries, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria, pay lower minimum wages than we do."

Estonia adopted the euro in January as the third east European country behind Slovenia and Slovakia after a 10-month deflation amid its worst recession in two decades. Inflation was 5.1 percent in March, the highest in the 17-member euro area. The government estimates economic growth at 4 percent this year and next.

Ott Ummelas