OREANDA-NEWS. March 14, 2014. There were 6,400 job vacancies in the enterprises, institutions and organizations of Estonia in the final quarter of 2013, a decrease of 3.4 percent compared to the same period of 2012, and 25 percent compared to the previous quarter.

A job vacancy is a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied or becomes vacant when an employee leaves, and for which the employer is actively trying to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise, institution or organization concerned.

The rate of job vacancies was 1.2 percent in the 4th quarter, which is the lowest level since the second quarter of 2011, Statistics Estonia reported today. It was 1.6 percent in the third quarter. The rate of job vacancies is the share of job vacancies compared to the sum total of the number of jobs available and filled in the country.

The rate was highest in information and communication activities (2.3 percent) and the lowest in mining and quarrying (0.2 percent). The increase in the number of job vacancies was the biggest in manufacturing, where there were 1.4 times more vacancies compared to the 4th quarter of 2012.

Harju County (including Tallinn) accounted for 56 percent of job vacancies and occupied posts. The rate of job vacancies was the highest in Parnu County (2.5 percent), but only 5 percent of all jobs (job vacancies and occupied posts total) are in Parnu County.

One-quarter of the job vacancies were in the public sector and 75 percent in the private sector. The rate of job vacancies was 1.1 percent in the public sector (which includes companies owned by the state or local government) and 1.3 percent in the private sector.

In the third quarter of 2013, 81,200 employees left their jobs. The labour turnover increased by 4.7 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012.

The data was based on the job vacancies and labour turnover survey conducted by Statistics Estonia since 2005. In 2013, the sample included 11,740 enterprises, institutions and organizations.