Labour market adjustments in Estonia during the 2008/2011 crisis

Sandrine Levasseur

Eastern Journal of European Studies, 2012, vol. 3(1), 123-143

Abstract: This article provides an assessment of labour market adjustments occurring in Estonia during the 2008/2011 crisis. The strategy of internal devaluation succeeded in shrinking the real (hourly) unit labour costs by 25 % per year in 2010 and 2011, thus helping Estonian enterprises gain international competitiveness. The whole gamut of tools available in terms of flexibility was used, at least in the worst time of the financial crisis: massive lay-offs, reduced working time and wage cuts. In 2011, Estonia stood as one of the most dynamic EU countries to recover with exports growth. On the social side, however, the track record is not positive: the purchasing power of workers has been reduced and unemployment still remains strong and persistent despite economic recovery.

Keywords: labour market; crisis; Estonia; internal devaluation; wage cuts. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2012_0301_LEV.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jes:journl:y:2012:v:3:p:123-143

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Eastern Journal of European Studies from Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alupului Ciprian ().