Lithuania

The Lithuanian economy grew at a 5% growth rate at the beginning of 2020 and, prior to COVID-19, was expected to reach this level for the full year. Lithuania is known in the EU as a financial technology innovation centre but, has also attracted large foreign direct investment inflows this year from other sectors. On example is the 100 million EUR investment in Kaunas from German tyre manufacturer, Continental.

Registered unemployment has increased to 11.5% and is 3 pp higher than year ago. The number of active job openings on the Lithuanian job market is ca. 22% lower in June than it was in May. At the same time, the number of active job seekers is up by around 4% as compared to a month ago. In general, the average offered and expected salaries remained at a similar level compared to the previous month. However, this was not the case in all specialties. Gross salaries offered in sales&business development have decreased by almost EUR 400 on average. At the same time, gross salaries in finance and (tech) project management have increased slightly.

Common salary levels in the logistics and production sectors have shown an increasing trend by 6.6% and 0.5% respectively, comparing 2020 Q1 versus 2019 Q1. When comparing Q2 and Q1 2020, the increase in production was 2.5% and 9.0% in logistics.

In the logistics sector, it is difficult to find managers and specialists with relevant education and work experience. In both production and logistics there is continuous shortage of skilled and unskilled workers. Based on unemployment rates, the availability of employees in logistics decreased while in increasing in the production sector; with 20% of all unemployed registered from the production sector.

Production and logistics in Lithuania are concentrated around the biggest cities of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda and therefore those regions have the highest levels of demand for employees. The lowest availability for white-collar positions are again located around the biggest cities for both sectors, and particularly for the medical sector.

COVID-19 has had a major negative influence on the public transport, tourism, retail, manufacturing and construction sectors in Lithuania which has led to increased unemployment rates from 9.3% to 12.8%. At the same time, there has been an increase in demand for qualified specialists in the logistics, IT and pharma/ medical sectors.

Payments in Lithuania