Editing Economy of Estonia (section)

==Employment participation==
[[File:Estonia Unemployment Rates.png|450px|thumb|Unemployment rate as a percentage of the labor force in [[Estonia]] according to [[Statistics Estonia]].]]

Estonia has around 600,000 employees, yet the country has a shortage of skilled labor, and since skill shortages are experienced everywhere in Europe, the government has increased working visa quota for non-[[European Economic Area|EEA]] citizens, although it has nevertheless been criticized for being inadequate for addressing the shortages.

The [[Late-2000s recession|late-2000s recession in the world]], the near-concurrent local property bust with changes in Estonian legislation to increase [[labour market flexibility]] (making it easier for companies to lay off workers) saw Estonia's unemployment rate shoot up to 18.8% throughout the duration of the crisis, then stabilise to 13.8% by summer 2011, as the economy recovered on the basis of strong exports. Internal consumption, and therefore imports, plummeted; and cuts were made in public finances.<ref>{{cite news |title=Estonian exceptionalism|newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=14 July 2011 |url= http://www.economist.com/node/18959241 |access-date=11 August 2011}}</ref> Some of the reduction in unemployment has been attributed to some Estonians' emigrating for employment to Finland, the UK, Australia, and elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=8853&langId=en |title=Social Impact of Emigration and Rural-Urban Migration in Central and Eastern Europe |last=Tammaru |first=Tiit |date=April 2012 |website=ec.europa.eu |access-date=2019-02-01}}</ref>

After the recession, the unemployment rate went lower, and throughout 2015 and 2016, the rate stayed near the levels that preceded the economic downturn, staying at just above 6%.<ref name="stat.ee_main_indicators">{{cite web |title=Most requested statistics |publisher=Statistics Estonia |url=http://www.stat.ee/main-indicators |access-date=22 May 2011 |archive-date=23 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121123153505/http://www.stat.ee/main-indicators |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2020-2023 the unemployment rate moved around between 5.2% and 7.7%.<ref>{{cite web |title=Estonia Unemployment Rate |url=https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/estonia/unemployment-rate |access-date=19 August 2023}}</ref>