The latest employment figures point overall to a gradual recovery in labour market activity, and similar trends are expected to hold broadly through the second half of the year. At the same time, as demand for labour grows, so do the risks of labour shortages.

According to the labour force survey data of the Central Statistical Bureau, the number of people in employment in the second quarter of 2025 rose by 0.8%, or 6.9 thousand, compared with the second quarter of 2024, while compared with the first quarter of the year it rose by 21.3 thousand, or 2.5%.

The employment rate rose in the second quarter to 64.9%, which is 1.7 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter. Compared with the second quarter of 2024, the employment rate has increased by 0.6 percentage points.

Overall, the rise in employment in the second quarter was driven both by seasonal factors — the start of the summer season and the increase in seasonal work — and by a substantial contribution from growing economic activity in individual sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and construction.

The unemployment rate fell in the second quarter of 2025 to 6.7%, which is 0.7 percentage points lower than in the first quarter of 2025 (7.4%) and 0.2 percentage points lower than in the second quarter of 2024 (6.9%). In total, the number of unemployed people reached 63.7 thousand among residents aged 15 to 74, which is 5.8 thousand fewer than a quarter earlier.

It should be noted that the labour market still faces a number of challenges — a limited supply of labour, demographic pressure and skills mismatches — which, in conditions of low unemployment, may on the whole aggravate the risks of labour shortages in individual sectors.

At the same time, the economic activity rate of the population continued to rise in the second quarter of 2025. In the second quarter of 2025 it increased to 69.6%, which was 0.5 percentage points higher than in the second quarter of 2024 (69.1%) and 1.3 percentage points higher than in the first quarter of 2025 (68.3%). It should be noted that the economic activity of the population has reached its highest level since 2020. In the second quarter of 2025 the number of economically active residents aged 15 to 74 stood at 953.0 thousand, which is 4.8 thousand more than in the first half of the previous year (948.2 thousand).

Despite still high economic uncertainty, the situation in the labour market has on the whole gradually stabilised. At the same time, both the fall in unemployment and the rise in the economic activity of the population point overall to growing risks of labour shortages in the labour market, given the constraining supply-side factors. The situation in the labour market is expected to continue improving in the second half of the year as well. Overall, the number of people in employment in 2025 could increase by an average of 0.4%, or approximately 4 thousand, compared with 2024, while the unemployment rate could fall to 6.5%.