RIGA, March 11 (LETA) - The number of vacancies registered with the State Employment Agency (NVA) has dropped by more than half in the past year, said NVA director Evita Simsone in an interview with commercial TV3 television today.

In her words, about a year ago, when the Covid-19 pandemic started, more than 30,000 vacancies were registered with NVA, but now this number has dropped by more than half, and competition for jobs has risen considerably.

Asked whether employers are not using this situation to cut wages, Simone said that wages have remained unchanged or even have slightly risen.

Meanwhile, there is a shortage of employees in some sectors, such as construction, transport and logistics, manufacturing, IT, interior sector and financial sector.

Simsone said that the unemployment situation in Latvia is very stable, at the same time, Latvia should start getting ready for changes the job market will see after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.

As reported, at the end of February this year, the registered unemployment rate in Latvia reached 8.2 percent of the economically active population, which is a rise of 0.2 percentage points from January, according to the State Employment Agency.

At the end of February 2021, there were 74,494 people registered with the State Employment Agency as jobless, which is 1,882 people more than a month ago when the jobless register included 72,612 people.