Estonia’s unemployment rate declined to 6.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, down from 7.4% in the same quarter of the previous year. This was the lowest rate recorded since the fourth quarter of 2023, reflecting a drop in the number of unemployed persons by 8.2 thousand over the year, to 47.1 thousand.
By gender, the unemployment rate for women fell sharply to 5.0% from 7.2%, while the rate for men edged up to 7.8% from 7.5% a year earlier.
Across age groups, youth unemployment (ages 15–24) increased by 1.4 percentage points to 18.1%. In contrast, unemployment among those aged 25–49 declined to 6.2% from 7.4%, and among those aged 50–74 it decreased to 4.3% from 5.2%.
At the same time, total employment slipped by 6.2 thousand to 688.6 thousand, and the labor force participation rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 68.1%.
For the whole of 2025, the unemployment rate averaged 7.5%, marginally lower than 7.6% in 2024, while the average number of unemployed decreased by 900 to 56.2 thousand.
