Most young people in Latvia do not feel confident about their prospects in the job market, according to the results of a survey carried out by “Alma Career Latvia”. Only 10% of employees aged under 25 believe that young people have broad and varied job opportunities, while 79% acknowledge that there is a shortage of suitable job offers and that finding work is difficult.
Others take a more optimistic view of young people’s job market prospects
Society as a whole rates young people’s job market prospects more optimistically than young people themselves do.
· Employees over the age of 25: almost half (49%) believe that young people in Latvia have very broad and varied job opportunities, a third (33%) think they are no different from those of other age groups, but 57% nonetheless agree that it is hard for young people to find work because there is a shortage of suitable offers.
· Employers: 39% believe that young people have broad opportunities in the job market, 22% think these are no different from anyone else’s, while 39% agree that it is difficult for young people to find work.
“Alma Career Latvia” survey on young people’s job market prospects (2025)
What young people expect: at least 750-1000 euros take-home pay in a first job
The survey reveals that more than half, or 56%, of young people consider a motivating salary in a first job to be between 751 and 1250 euros after tax. One in five young people, or 20% of employees in the under-25 age group, expect 1001-1250 euros, while 6% would like to receive 1251-1500 euros. Only 5% of young people regard pay as unimportant, focusing instead on gaining experience.
Employers take a more cautious view of pay for young people – 42% believe that suitable pay for a young person in a first job would be 751-1000 euros, and only a fifth would be prepared to pay more than 1000 euros.
What matters most to young people when choosing an employer?
In the survey, young people identified three key criteria when choosing an employer:
· Financial terms – competitive pay and additional bonuses,
· Opportunities to grow – training, courses and chances of promotion,
· Flexibility at work – the chance to combine work with private life, including remote working or flexible hours.
“Young people’s own assessment of their prospects in the job market is considerably more critical than the view taken by employers or by other employees. This gap between perception and reality shows that employers will need to work not only on providing competitive pay and opportunities to grow, but also on communication – on how to show young people the opportunities available to them more clearly and more engagingly. Young people are looking for a working environment that is transparent, flexible and offers a clear path for development,” says Krista Roziņa, head of marketing and communications at “Alma Career Latvia”.
The survey “Young people’s prospects in the job market” was carried out online in June 2025. It involved 103 employers and 240 employees in Latvia.
About Alma Career
“Alma Career Latvia”, formerly “CV-Online Latvia”, was founded in 1996 in Estonia as the first online recruitment company in the Baltic states, and has operated in Latvia since 1999. Over more than 25 years in business it has become the market leader in employment and recruitment services in the Baltic states, representing several brands and areas of business in Latvia – the most popular and most visited job advertisement portal www.cv.lv, the broadest job advertisement aggregator www.visidarbi.lv, the recruitment agency CV-Online Recruitment (www.recruitment.lv), the survey of the best and most popular employers www.topdarbadevejs.lv, the careers and work blog www.pardarbu.lv and the largest salary database in Latvia www.algas.lv