Economic activity, sources of subsistence, and labour migration of the population
In order to describe the work ability of the population, the main economic activity of each person aged 15 and over in the last full working week of 2021, i.e. 13–19 December, was identified on the basis of various registers. The economic activity of the population is characterised by the current activity status, the first census characteristic in this chapter. The main sources of people’s livelihoods in 2021 also provide important insights into how the population is managing. This is described by the characteristic main source of subsistence.
The following more detailed information on the employed was also collected from the registers:
- whether their main job is entrepreneurship (census characteristic status in employment),
- the location of their main place of work (census characteristic location of place of work),
- their main activity (census characteristic branch of economic activity), and
- their occupation in their main place of work (census characteristic occupation).
Current activity status
The share of the employed is 6 percentage points higher than in the previous census
Of all persons aged 15 and over, 58% (642,391) were employed in the last full working week of 2021 (13–19 December), i.e. the survey week. Persons temporarily absent from work (e.g. on paid parental leave) were also included in the employed population. The unemployed, i.e. persons who were not working during the survey week but were actively looking for a job, account for 4% (43,832). The remaining 38% (427,809) of the population aged 15 and over are economically inactive, i.e. pension or capital income recipients (21%), students (6%), and people who, for unknown reasons, were neither working nor actively looking for work (11%).
Compared with 2011, the share of employed people aged 15 and over has risen by 6 percentage points to 58%. The increase is mainly due to pensioners, but also slightly to the unemployed and students. The employment rate has probably risen both because the economy is in better shape and because those born during the baby boom of the re-independence era have entered the main workforce. However, there are fewer students, because there are fewer young people of secondary school or university age. Interestingly, despite the ageing of the population, the share of inactive pensioners has fallen. This may be due to the increase in retirement age, better health of older people, i.e. their greater capacity to work, but also, in some sectors, certainly due to labour shortages, which often lead to older people continuing to work.
In the age group 15–64, women outnumber men in employment
Across all people aged 15 and over, the share of the employed is 4 percentage points higher for men (60% for men, 56% for women), but this is because women have a longer life expectancy, meaning that there are more women of retirement age who are no longer working. Between the ages of 15 and 64, there are more women in employment (73%) than men (68%), with the largest difference in the 50–64 age group (78% vs 70%). The proportion of the unemployed, i.e. active jobseekers is similar among men and women – 4%.
Less than half of the people aged 15 and over are employed in Ida-Viru and Valga counties
As expected, the highest employment rates are found in Harju (62%) and Tartu (60%) counties, where the majority of jobs and students preparing to enter the labour market are located (students account for 8% in Tartu county and nearly 6% in other regions). The share of people in employment is highest in the rural municipalities around Tallinn and Tartu, in the so-called town settlement regions, reaching 70%. The lowest employment rates are recorded in rural settlement regions, with the lowest rates seen in Ida-Viru (48%) and Valga (50%) counties, both of which also have the highest rates of registered unemployment (5.6% for Ida-Viru, 5.1% for Valga county). Population composition also has an impact on employment in these counties – the proportion of pensioners there is higher than in other Estonian counties (29% in Ida-Viru, 26% in Valga county).
The share of employed Russians is 6 percentage points lower than that of employed Estonians
60% of people of Estonian nationality aged 15 and over are employed and 3% are unemployed. The share of Russians in employment is as much as 6 percentage points lower, mainly because of pensioners, but also due to the unemployed and the economically inactive. 10 years ago, the ratio of employed people of Estonian and Russian ethnicity was similar to today, but the proportion of the unemployed was higher among Russians back then. Slightly more than half (52%) of the people of other ethnic nationalities are in employment, but the share of the registered unemployed is also very low (3%). Around a fifth (19%) of them were neither working nor looking for work for unknown reasons during the survey week. It should be noted, however, that this group also includes people who resided in Estonia for the rest of the year because of work or studies but may have already left Estonia by the survey week.
|
Ethnic nationality (15 and older) |
Year
|
Employed (%) |
Unemployed (%) |
Pension or capital income recipient (%) |
Student (%) |
Other inactive (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ethnic nationalities total |
2021 |
58 |
4 |
21 |
6 |
11 |
|
2011 |
52 |
6 |
27 |
8 |
7 |
|
|
Estonian |
2021 |
60 |
3 |
20 |
7 |
10 |
|
2011 |
54 |
5 |
25 |
9 |
7 |
|
|
Russian |
2021 |
54 |
5 |
25 |
5 |
12 |
|
2011 |
48 |
10 |
28 |
6 |
8 |
|
|
Other ethnic nationalities |
2021 |
52 |
3 |
22 |
4 |
19 |
|
2011 |
48 |
7 |
35 |
3 |
7 |
The inactivity rate is highest among people with lower educational attainment
The data also show a logical positive correlation between current activity status and highest educational attainment. In the 30–64 age group, the employment rate is highest among people with higher education (84%) and lowest among those with basic education or less (62%). Among the less educated, the percentage of employed people is lower not only because of the registered unemployed – the largest share is made up of those who, for unknown reasons, were neither working nor looking for work during the survey week (26% or 18,864 people).
|
Educational attainment (30–64-year-olds) |
Employed (%) |
Unemployed (%) |
Pension or capital income recipient (%) |
Student (%) |
Other inactive (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Basic education |
62 |
8 |
3 |
1 |
26 |
|
Secondary education |
76 |
6 |
3 |
1 |
15 |
|
Higher education |
84 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
Main source of subsistence
Main source of subsistence is the main source of income, monetary or otherwise, of which a person was dependent in 2021. Anyone under 15 years of age is considered to be maintained by other persons.
The share of people living on pensions has decreased
For people aged 15 and over, the most common source of subsistence is understandably a wage or salary – this is the main source of subsistence for 54%. 23% of people over the age of 15 live mainly on pensions, 11% on supports, scholarships, or benefits (e.g. child benefits, subsistence benefits, disability-related allowances), and 7% are maintained by other persons. People with some other source of subsistence account for a marginal proportion of the population.
Compared with the previous censuses, the share of wages or salaries as the main source of subsistence has steadily risen. In 2000, wages were the main source of livelihood for 46% of people over 15, and for 48% in 2011, rising to 54% in 2021. The share of people maintained by other persons has fallen at a similar pace, from 15% in 2000 to 12% in 2011 and 7% in 2021. The share of pensions as the main source of subsistence has declined by 6 percentage points over the past 10 years, despite an increase in the number of people aged 65 and over.
|
Wage, salary (%) |
Entrepreneurial income, income from farming (%) |
Pension (%) |
Support, scholarship, benefit (%) |
Maintained by other persons (%) |
Maintained by an institution (%) |
Other source of subsistence (%) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2000 |
46 |
2 |
27 |
6 |
15 |
1 |
3 |
|
2011 |
48 |
2 |
29 |
5 |
12 |
1 |
3 |
|
2021 |
54 |
2 |
23 |
11 |
7 |
1 |
2 |
In terms of age groups, people aged 65 and over stand out, with pensions being the main source of subsistence for 86% of them. However, compared with 10 years ago, the proportion of pensioners whose main source of subsistence is wages and salaries has doubled – from 5% in 2011 to 10% now.
There are several differences by sex when it comes to the main source of subsistence. Both men and women are most likely to rely on wages as their main source of subsistence, but the proportion of men whose main source of subsistence is wages is higher – 59% for men, 50% for women. There are also more men (9%) than women (6%) who are maintained by other persons or institutions. However, pensions are the main source of subsistence for more women than men (28% and 18%, respectively). The share of women (13%) who rely on supports, scholarships, or benefits is also higher than that of men (8%), but entrepreneurial income is the main source of subsistence for more men (2.5%) than women (0.9%).
Status in employment
Status in employment refers to the role a person plays in his/her main place of work, i.e. whether he/she is a salaried employee, a self-employed person, etc. The main place of work is the place where, according to the employment register, the person worked with the highest workload (if he/she had more than one job) or received higher pay in the last full working week of 2021, the survey week.
6% of men are self-employed, compared with just 3% of women
During the survey week, 642,391 people were counted as employed in Estonia. The majority (96%) of the employed are salaried employees in their main place of work, while the proportions of employers with salaried employees and own-account workers are equal (2% each, 4% in total). Other employed persons, i.e. unpaid workers in a family enterprise, account for 0.1%. Compared with women, more employed men are entrepreneurs, accounting for 6% of all economically active men. 97% of women are salaried employees and entrepreneurship is the main activity for only 3%.
In terms of age, we see an increase in the share of the self-employed and a decrease in the share of salaried employees among older people, but salaried employees are still the most numerous in each age group. 99% of 15—29-year-olds are employees and 1% are self-employed, while among those aged 65 and over, 89% are employees and 11% are self-employed. However, entrepreneurs over the age of 65 are mainly own-account workers rather than entrepreneurs with employees.
Compared with previous censuses, the share of salaried employees has risen and the share of self-employed people for whom this is the main employment status has fallen. While 7.1% of the employed population were entrepreneurs in 2000 and 7.4% in 2011, their proportion in 2021 was only 4.2%. Salaried employees accounted for 89% in 2000, 91% in 2011, and 96% in 2021.
Location of place of work
The location of place of work is the actual location in which an employed person performs his/her main job. If a person worked in a subunit located in a place other than the employer's main place of business, the location of the subunit is considered. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to determine from the registers whether a person was teleworking instead. Data on teleworking have been collected with the Estonian Labour Force Survey, according to which 28% of the employed worked remotely in the fourth quarter of 2021[1]. The rate of remote work was higher among women (30%) than men (26%). The highest share of remote workers was found among 25—34-year-olds (36%).
0.3% of Estonia’s permanent residents work abroad
According to the 2021 census, the main place of work of 99.7% of Estonia’s employed residents is in Estonia. Only 0.3%, or 1,651 people, work abroad. The number of people employed abroad has decreased 15 times compared with the previous census in 2011. This significant difference is due to a changed methodology, according to which most of those working abroad are not counted as residents of Estonia because they spend most of the year in a foreign country. 75% of Estonia’s residents working abroad are men and 25% are women.
14% of people work outside their county of residence
61.5% of people working in Estonia are employed in the municipality where they live, while 24.5% work in their county of residence but in a different municipality. This means that for the majority of people, 86%, their place of work is within the same county as their place of residence. The remaining 14% travel out of the county to work if they have not found a way to work from home.
Women generally work a little closer to home than men – only 12% of women are employed outside their county of residence, compared with 17% of men. 22% of women have their place of work in the county of residence but in a different municipality (compared with 27% of men), and 66% of women work in their municipality of residence (men: 56%).
43% of the employed work in Tallinn
The majority of workplaces are located in large cities, mainly Tallinn and Tartu. 43% of all employed people work in Tallinn (up from 39% in the previous census), but a third of those working in Tallinn do not live there. As many as a fifth (21%) of non-Tallinn residents work in Tallinn. 9.2% of the employed population work in Tartu, and 57% of them also live there. The remaining 43% reside outside the city limits, but mainly in the surrounding rural municipalities.
Branch of economic activity
Branch of economic activity refers to the nature of the economic activity of a person's place of work, i.e. institution or enterprise. If a person worked in a subunit with an activity different from the employer's main branch of activity, the subunit’s branch of activity is considered.
The service sector is growing, other sectors are shrinking
The majority of the employed, 71% to be precise, are active in the service sector. The share of people employed in the service sector has been growing steadily since the 2000 census, by 10 percentage points in total, due to the decline in the industrial and the primary sector. 26% of Estonia’s employed population worked in the industrial sector at the end of 2021, and only 3% in the primary sector (agriculture, hunting, forestry, fishing).
Looking at neighbouring countries, Estonia is most similar to Lithuania [2], where the population is distributed between sectors in exactly the same way. Compared with Estonia, Latvia [3] has a slightly higher emphasis on the primary sector (7%) and Finland [4] on the service sector (76%).
The number of people working in the primary sector has fallen even further in the last 10 years, but this decline is unlikely to stop, as more than half (53%) of people active in the primary sector are aged 50 or over.
The share of women is highest in the health sector, the share of men in the construction sector
The Estonian labour market also continues to be characterised by gender segregation by branch of economic activity. 4.1% of men are employed in the primary sector, compared with only 1.7% of women. 37.7% of men and 16% of women work in the manufacturing sector. The service sector employs 58.2% of men and as many as 82.3% of women.
Women are concentrated in social work (86%), education (83%), and human health (75%) activities. Men account for over three quarters in construction (89%) and mining and quarrying (85%). In rural settlement regions, the difference between men's and women's jobs is greater than in city and town settlement regions.
In more detail, the number of people involved with employment-related activities, such as recruiters, etc., has increased 5.4 times in 10 years (an increase of 6,400 people). The number of computer programmers has grown 2.6 times (by 10,911 people), and the number of people employed in information service activities has increased by exactly the same amount (up by 2,079 people). The highest increases in the number of persons employed were recorded in computer programming (10,911), trade (9,322), and human health (7,093) activities.
Compared with 2011, there are 6 times fewer people involved in extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas (down by 2,645 people). Half as many people are employed in the manufacture of leather and related products (632 fewer people). The largest numbers of people have left the manufacture of wearing apparel (3,240), extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas (2,645), and construction of buildings (1,958).
The largest proportion of the youngest workers surveyed under the topic of employment in the census, i.e. 15–29-year-olds, are employed in trade (17%). Among the employed population of retirement age (65 and over), the largest share of people are active in education (14%).
Occupation
Occupation refers to the type of work done in the main place of work. Type of work is described by the main tasks and duties of the work according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08).
Professionals are the largest occupational group
Among those employed at the end of 2021, professionals are the most numerous (21%), followed by service and sales workers (15%). Managers account for 9%. The least numerous occupational group is armed forces occupations (0.5%). The biggest increase, 1.6 times, has been recorded in the number of clerical support workers. The numbers of professionals and persons in elementary occupations have also grown nearly 1.5 times. However, the number of people in armed forces occupations is now 2 times lower, and the number of skilled workers in the primary sector has also fallen by a quarter.
Women are more often professionals, while men are managers
The highest proportion of men are craft and related trades workers (22%). Among women, professionals make up the largest share (27%). However, there are relatively more men than women employed in managerial positions.
|
Occupation |
Males and females (%) |
Males (%) |
Females (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Professionals |
21 |
15 |
27 |
|
Service and sales workers |
15 |
8 |
22 |
|
Craft and related trades workers |
13 |
22 |
5 |
|
Technicians and associate professionals |
12 |
11 |
13 |
|
Elementary occupations |
10 |
9 |
11 |
|
Plant and machine operators and assemblers |
10 |
16 |
4 |
|
Managers |
9 |
12 |
7 |
|
Clerical support workers |
8 |
5 |
12 |
|
Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
Armed forces occupations |
1 |
1 |
0 |
While gender segregation by branch of economic activity was evidently horizontal, occupational segregation was found to be vertical. Around 75% of service and sales workers and clerical support workers are women. Men dominate in the following occupational groups: plant and machine operators and assemblers, craft and related trades workers, and armed forces occupations.
Professionals are concentrated in big cities
For people employed in Tallinn and Tartu, the largest group is made up of professionals (27%), followed by service and sales workers (16%). In the rest of Estonia, however, craft and related trades workers are the most numerous (17%). Among men employed in the rest of Estonia, the share of elementary professions is also high. Outside the cities of Tallinn and Tartu, the largest proportion of women earn their living as service and sales workers.
The population with basic education is mainly engaged in elementary occupations, people with secondary education work in service jobs, and those with higher education are professionals
The proportion of the employed with basic education or less is the lowest – 11% of all employed. Half of them are either craft and related trades workers or engaged in elementary occupations. Those with secondary or vocational education represent 45% of the total employed population. One in five of them are service or sales workers, 18% are craft and related trades workers. The remaining 44% of all employed have a higher education. Of them, as many as 40% are professionals, 15% are technicians and associate professionals, and 13% are engaged as managers. The graph below shows how much of the workforce in each occupational group is made up of people with particular levels of education. For instance, people with higher education dominate in the occupational group of professionals.
Estonians have the highest share of professionals, while the largest share of Russians are service and sales workers
Different occupations dominate in different ethnic groups. Estonians have the highest percentage of professionals, mostly teaching professionals. The second largest group is service and sales workers, with sales workers being the most numerous. In third place are technicians and associate professionals, with the largest group being business and administration associate professionals.
Among the employed people of Russian ethnicity, service and sales workers are the most numerous, with the largest share of sales workers. Among the employed of other ethnic nationalities, professionals account for the largest share, but unlike among Estonians, ICT professionals are the most numerous.
|
Occupation |
Estonians (%) |
Russians (%) |
Other ethnic nationalities (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Professionals |
23 |
16 |
21 |
|
Service and sales workers |
15 |
17 |
12 |
|
Technicians and associate professionals |
13 |
9 |
10 |
|
Craft and related trades workers |
12 |
16 |
17 |
|
Managers |
10 |
6 |
8 |
|
Plant and machine operators and assemblers |
9 |
13 |
11 |
|
Elementary occupations |
8 |
15 |
12 |
|
Clerical support workers |
8 |
8 |
9 |
|
Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Armed forces occupations |
1 |
0 |
0 |
[1] Teleworking is working outside the usual office space of the employer (either at home or in a remote office), while being in contact with the employer using modern information and communication technologies.
[2] Data on Lithuania, 2021 Q4: https://osp.stat.gov.lt/statistiniu-rodikliu-analize#/ (Employment and unemployment > Employees)
[3] Data on Latvia, 2021: https://data.stat.gov.lv/pxweb/en/OSP_PUB/START__EMP__NB__NBLA/NBL060
[4] Data on Finland, 2020: https://pxdata.stat.fi/PxWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__tyokay/statfin_tyokay_pxt_115i.px/