Latvia's unemployment rate edged down to 7.0% in the second quarter of 2026 from 7.1% in the first quarter, though it was higher than the 6.7% recorded a year earlier. The number of unemployed people fell by 0.2 thousand from the previous quarter to 66.2 thousand. Labor market conditions diverged by gender: the unemployment rate for men rose to 8.1% from 7.2%, with 37.8 thousand unemployed, while the rate for women dropped to 5.9% from 7.0%, leaving 28.4 thousand unemployed women. Youth unemployment among people aged 15-24 increased to 15.0%, equivalent to 11.1 thousand people and 16.7% of the total unemployed population. At the same time, 15.6% of people aged 20-64, or 161.6 thousand individuals, were economically inactive (neither working nor seeking work), down by 2.3 thousand from the same period a year earlier. Total employment rose by 14.3 thousand to 885.5 thousand, lifting the employment rate to 65.1%, up 1.3 percentage points from the first quarter.