On 5 June 2015, Klaipėda hosted the joint meeting of the BA Welfare Committee and the BA Education, Science and Culture Committee. The meeting was devoted to discussing the labour market of the Baltic States with regard to its outlook and the key challenges and policy responses related to it. The participants of the event included Jolita Vaickienė, Irena Šiaulienė and Valerijus Simulik, members of the Seimas Delegation to the Baltic Assembly; Orinta Leiputė, member of the Seimas Committee on Education, Science and Culture; members of parliaments of the Baltic States; specialists from the Lithuanian Ministry of Social Security and Labour and the Ministry of Education and Science and guests from the Nordic Council.

Jolita Vaickienė, Chair of the meeting, Chair of the BA Welfare Committee and Chair of the Seimas Committee on Audit, welcomed the participants and expressed her satisfaction that the meeting was held in the city of Klaipėda which, due to its geographical location, is a good example how the resources that are already on place can be used for greater benefit for city and state in whole.

Orinta Leiputė, Member of the Seimas, also delivered a welcome address on behalf of the Seimas Committee on Education, Science and Culture. She noted that the committee examines problems pertaining to higher education and vocational training, continuously monitors training of specialists for the labour market, the quality of studies in higher education institutions, and cooperation between science and business by exercising parliamentary scrutiny. Particular attention is currently paid to graduate employment issues. Ms Leiputė noted that the Seimas adopted, in April this year, amendments to the Law on Education that should open the door to a long-term and continuous monitoring of labour matching. She believes that the data collected will make it possible to determine how long it takes for educated people to get employed, the duration of their employment and average wage, as well as the proportion of unemployed people according to educational institutions, their education level, training or study programmes, study area, field and form. Monitoring of labour matching will help to identify what skills will be necessary for Lithuania’s economic development.

The first session, which was devoted to the labour market of the Baltic States, heard a report by Andrius Adomaitis, Deputy Director of Klaipėda Labour Exchange. He spoke about recently improving trends in employment and unemployment in Lithuania. Mr Adomaitis said that the year 2014 saw the highest employment rate across all age groups, of both men and women, over the past five years. The employment rate for people aged 15–64 increased by 2 percentage points to 65.7%. The unemployment rate stood at 10.7% in 2014 and was 1.1 percentage points lower than in 2013. At the same time, the youth unemployment rate amounted to 19.3% in 2014, but it was 2.6 percentage points lower compared to 2013.

As regards employment in the regions, the speaker pointed out that unemployment varies greatly in Lithuania and even within individual counties. As of 1 May 2015, the largest number of the working age population was registered as unemployed in Ingalina, Alytus and Lazdijai districts, while the smallest number of such people was in Trakai, Elektrėnai and Kretinga districts. The greatest number of unemployed young people (aged 16–29) was in Jurbarkas District (9.6%), while the lowest level of youth unemployment was in Kaišiadoriai and Trakai districts (1.7% each).

The Deputy Director of Klaipėda Labour Exchange pointed to the growing number of foreigners applying for work permits in Lithuania. Presenting the situation in Klaipėda, he said that most applications currently come from Ukraine (80%) and Belarus (almost 9%). Statistics show that most foreigners are employed in the service sector, with a smaller part of them working in industry and construction, and that driving international freight vehicles is the most popular occupation.

In his analysis of the most important problems related to the Lithuanian labour market, Mr Adomaitis pointed to the low economic activity by people, rigid labour market, still high level of undeclared work, and meagre wages. He said that the Employment Programme for 2014–2020 approved by the Government specifies how to address these problems. The programme is aimed at increasing the number of employed people (aged 15–64) by 28.3% and reducing the number of higher education graduates registered with territorial labour exchanges to 5% and that of persons with vocational training to 18%.

Representatives from the Ministry of Welfare of Latvia and Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia also gave an overview of the labour market situation in their countries.

Please find a comprehensive programme of the event and the list of participants on the special webpage (BA2015.lrs.lt) column dedicated to the event.

 

On 1 January 2015, Lithuania took over the Presidency of the Baltic Assembly. This year, the Seimas plans to hold 14 international events, with the majority of them hosted by the Seimas in Vilnius and four of them held in Kaunas, Klaipėda, Palanga and Šiauliai.

 The Lithuanian Presidency adopted the slogan For a Growing and United Baltic Region and set the following priorities: developing a growing and credible Baltic Region; secure Baltic Region; a sustainable and competitive society in the Region; and the Baltic Region in the world: development of regional networks. 

The Baltic Assembly is an international organisation for cooperation among the parliaments of the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Estonia, and the Republic of Latvia, established in Tallinn on 8 November 1991. The headquarters of its Secretariat is based in Riga, Latvia (http://baltasam.org/en/).

The term of presidency of the Baltic Assembly is one calendar year and the presidency is held alternately by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 

 

Jolanta Anskaitienė, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, tel. +370 5 239 6508, e-mail: jolanta.anskaitiene@lrs.lt