Jobs in Estonia – Most In-Demand Professions in 2019

by Liina Laas | Aug 14, 2019 | Work in Estonia | 4 comments

Estonia. Small, agile, techy and entrepreneurial. It’s also deceptively spacious.

It has given us tech giants like Skype, Transferwise, Bolt and many others. Most of the population vote online and have been doing so for more than a decade. Company perks such as remote work, free meals and company retreats are the norm to attract talent.

The air is clean, there is plenty of space for everyone and crime rates are low. Sounds like the perfect place to live and work, right?

The only downside is the winters that can get rather nippy.

According to Statistics Estonia, the unemployment rate in Estonia is the lowest it has been since 2008, currently at 4.7%. The year-on-year growth of the gross domestic product was 4.5% in the first quarter of 2019.

As one of the leading talent acquisition platforms in the Baltics, MeetFrank is uniquely placed to share some insights on the job market in this part of the world.

So, share insights we shall.

Top 5 talent employers seek in Estonia

I’ve looked at the data from job offers on MeetFrank and turned it into a nifty infographic.

What positions where in most demand of being filled? Also, what range of salaries employers are willing to pay? How much are they willing to offer over your expected salary? And lastly – what are the highest offered salaries for positions on MeetFrank?

If you’re a senior software developer, you’re in luck. Employers will be fighting over you.

How much are employers willing to pay?

Data gathered from all employers recruiting in Estonia in 2019 on MeetFrank varies quite a bit depending on the field they are looking for.

Considering the lack of developers, rather unsurprisingly, software development is the highest paid track on MeetFrank. Average maximum salary offers though in software development and IT & sysadmin are pretty close.Same goes for sales & business development and product management.

Highest ever salary offers are the same in business development and IT & sysadmin. All time high offer in customer service on MeetFrank has been €5000 which considering the average salary in this field is rather high.

I need to point out though that the highest offers are generally for executive roles.

Most popular search on MeetFrank in Estonia is for for software engineers which considering the booming Manufacturing and IT sectors (contributing 1.5% and 0.6% to the overall growth of GDP in Q1 2019) this does not come as much of a surprise.

Furthermore, these are consequently also the highest paying jobs in Estonia.

Economy overview

Since the restoration of its independence in 1991, Estonia has been one of the fastest growing economies in the region. It is fast to make reforms and has created a digital society where pretty much all of the government services can be done online (except getting married, divorced and buying a property). Estonians save 5 working days per year per working age adult just thanks to the digital signature.

Positions in various indices:

1st – OECD Tax Competitiveness Index 2017
1st – Entrepreneurial Activity, World Economic Forum 2017
1st – Internet Freedom, Freedom House 2016 (sharing 1st place with Iceland)
7th – Index of Economic Freedom 2018, The Heritage Foundation
9th – Digital Economy and Society Index 2017, European Commission
12th – Ease of Doing Business 2016, The World Bank

Estonia has some of the highest international credit ratings in the region:

Standard & Poor’s: AA-
Moody’s: A1
Fitch IBCA: A+

According to Statistics Estonia, in Q1 2019 the average monthly gross wages and salaries reached €1,341. Data also indicates that salaries rose across all sectors.

The highest paying sectors were financial and insurance activities, energy, information and communication tech paying on average over €2,400, €2,260 and €2195.

Currently the number of available positions in Estonia remains over 10 000. Unsurprisingly, the rate of job vacancies was highest in information and communication (3.7%) and in financial and insurance industries (3.0%)

Estonia also has a very competitive tax system with pretty much non existent bureaucracy for the employees. Definitely an attractive country to work and live in.

Projected highest demand for jobs in Estonia

According to a labour needs survey conducted by the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (EUIF) the Estonian labour market will be most in need of programmers, cooks and lorry drivers in the coming years.

So if you’re looking for jobs in Estonia in these areas, you’re in luck.

Furthermore, taking a look at the occupational barometer map, it too indicates a large labour shortage when it comes to software developers. They have also pointed out that the current workforce lacks sufficient qualifications. In addition to software developers there’s also a need for systems admins, web designers and application programmers.

To tackle this the Estonian Government has started a project called “Choose IT”. The goal is to train 500 software developers by 2020. The training is free, if you meet the requirements and lasts approximately 3.5 months. By the end of it you will have basic knowledge and practical skills in software development.

The project seems to be doing well and most students will be offered a job at the company they did an internship with. To qualify you need to have finished at least 50% of your academic studies program if not already obtained a degree. This definitely is a great push by the government to tackle the lack of software engineers in Estonia.

Startup jobs in Estonia

What is interesting is that even though in most other fields the supply and demand for managerial positions is in balance, apart from information technology. Confirming the data that the most in demand jobs in Estonia are in the IT sector and not necessarily only for developers.

Why might that be?

Simply lack of talent in this area or the fact that Estonia has a very high amount of startups per capita? Startups per capita in Estonia is 6x higher than the average in Europe. Estonia also has the highest amount of unicorns per capita. That said we need to keep in mind that there’s only 1.3M people living over here.

Considering the size of the country and economy it seems that startups is all Estonia does. And why not, right ?

Currently, 3,700 Estonian ICT companies are hiring. So if you’re after jobs in Estonia and are skilled in this area, this may be a dream come true.

Have a look at what some of these companies have to offer and how much they are willing to pay for your talent on MeetFrank!