Number of people in Latvia with a second job up 78.5% in a year

The number of people in Latvia with a second job or occasional paid work on top of their main job rose by 29,000, or 78.5%, in a year to 65,900 in the third quarter of 2026, labour force survey data from CSP, the Central Statistical Bureau, show. That is 7.3% of everyone in work aged 15 to 74.

Women are more likely to have extra work: 37,400 women and 28,500 men did. Most spend far less time on it than on their main job: 32.2% put in between one and 10 hours over the period, and another 18.2% between 11 and 20 hours.

Employment and unemployment

In total, 897,000 people aged 15 to 74 were employed in the third quarter, or 66.1% of that age group. That is 4,900 more than a year earlier and 11,500 more than in the second quarter. Among people aged 65 to 74, 27.5% were working, up 1.8 percentage points on a year earlier.

The unemployment rate was 6.7%, down 0.2 points on a year earlier and 0.3 points on the second quarter. There were 64,400 unemployed people; the rate was 7.8% for men and 5.7% for women. The number of long-term unemployed, out of work for a year or more, fell by 7,600 to 18,600.

More young people in work, and out of it

Among people aged 15 to 24 the employment rate reached 36.9%, up 2.8 points in a year, with 69,700 young people in work. At the same time youth unemployment rose 3.7 points to 15.8%, with 13,100 young people out of work. CSP said both figures can rise together because employment is measured against everyone of that age, while unemployment is measured only against those working or actively looking for work.

Some 112,100 employees, or 14.8%, regularly worked remotely, up from 77,400, or 10.2%, a year earlier. Hybrid work, one or two days a week at home, was the most common arrangement.

What the economy ministry says

The Ministry of Economics said on 13 November that the employment rate and the economic activity rate, at 70.8%, were the highest since the early 2000s. It put the rise down to economic growth, higher wages and more job opportunities in some sectors, but said demographics limit the labour supply in the long run: the population aged 15 to 74 shrank by 11,400 in a year. The ministry expects employment to grow by about 0.1% in 2027 and unemployment to fall to 6.5%.

The third-quarter survey covered 4,300 households and about 7,000 people.