RIGA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Unemployment in Latvia can jump to 11 percent this year due to the coronavirus crisis, according to the latest labor market forecast released by the Economics Ministry.

The Baltic country's employed population is likely to decrease by 7.5 percent, or 69,000 people in 2020, the ministry's estimates showed.

The unemployment rate rose by 2 percentage points to 8.3 percent and 14,000 job vacancies disappeared in Latvia between the beginning of March and mid-May, the ministry said.

While the spread of COVID-19 across the globe caused activity on the Latvian labor market to slow in March, since the beginning of May the situation has been stabilizing, with unemployment growth slowing and the number of job vacancies rising again, according to the ministry's report.

The ministry listed aviation, food services, international passenger transportation, arts, culture and entertainment, hospitality services, car rentals, tour operators, as well as sports and fitness centers as the business most affected by the pandemic.

The Economics Ministry expects joblessness in Latvia to spike in 2020 and drop in the following years. By 2027, the jobless rate should be down to 5.5 percent, according to the labor market forecast.

At the end of 2019, unemployment in Latvia stood at 6.2 percent, according to the national employment authority's data. Enditem

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