00:00A few times a week, Steven from Tallinn turns his apartment into a photo studio,
00:06laying out clothes and staging shots.
00:09Selling clothes online is what's keeping him afloat between job applications.
00:14With a degree in finance, he wants to work in a bank, but the job search has been frustrating.
00:21So like a junior position, no experience needed whatsoever, right?
00:26And then you look at those jobs, it's about five.
00:30It's very good if you find five.
00:32Sometimes it's just two per week.
00:37And sometimes it's just the whole month, you're about five to ten jobs.
00:43Steven is not alone in this.
00:45In 2026, youth unemployment in Estonia has reached an alarming rate above 20%.
00:50Steven has been applying for jobs for four months.
00:53He believes that in his case, lack of experience played a crucial role.
00:57So you have to come into company or interview with proof that you're, you know, very good at your job
01:03experience,
01:03you know, it could be, you know, it's not really, I can't fall into that category,
01:08because simply I don't have, you know, the knowledge or experience yet.
01:15So this is the hardest part is just finding a job where you could, they could teach you, you know,
01:20how to be a professional at something.
01:23Estonia's high unemployment rate among youth is striking next to the country's overall rate,
01:29just 6.6% in the second quarter of 2026.
01:33Moreover, Estonia is one of the most digitally advanced countries in Europe.
01:38It's a home to ten unicorn companies.
01:41But digital progress and a robust startup scene do not automatically translate into jobs for local youth.
01:47As you can notice, we have big startups, which you don't call startups anymore, like Bold, like Wise.
01:52They bring a lot of people from abroad, from even not from Europe, from outside Europe,
01:56because we don't have professionals to match their needs.
01:59Nelja works in both talent acquisition and career counselling.
02:03She sees a gap in expectations between junior workers and employers.
02:08The former want more work-life balance, while the latter expect full commitment.
02:13That said, there are companies that are more eager to hire young people.
02:17At Elisa, they look at the younger generation differently.
02:20The new generation, they're maybe waiting for more flexibility.
02:24They really value their own personal time as well.
02:29And I wouldn't say it's a bad thing.
02:31It also requires from employers to adapt.
02:36Elisa is a telecommunications provider originally founded in Finland
02:40with about 1,000 employees in Estonia.
02:43The company says 22% of its employees here are Gen Z.
02:47This term is generally applied to people born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s.
02:53They work in different roles, from sales and customer service to IT.
02:58Keishi believes many factors make the job market challenging for young people.
03:03And one of them is AI.
03:05When we think of, I don't know, 10 or 20 years back,
03:08then the entry-level jobs were those simple jobs where you did some repetitive tasks.
03:15But today we know that automation and AI do those repetitive tasks,
03:19so companies may not need a person for that.
03:22Generational differences, lack of experience and the pressure from AI
03:26are known to young people across Europe.
03:29Even wealthy countries post youth unemployment rates above the EU average, 15%.
03:34In this case, institutional design matters more than national wealth.
03:38To a significant extent, Germany and the Netherlands owe their low rates
03:42to strong dual apprenticeship systems that combine on-the-job training
03:46at a company with theoretical instruction.
03:50In Estonia, some young people face another obstacle.
03:54Varvara was born here, but she's not fluent in Estonian.
03:57One in five people in this country have Russian roots,
04:01but Russian is considered a foreign language.
04:04It's always been a problem, now more so than before,
04:09because now almost every single job requires you to have Estonian skills,
04:15at least be one.
04:17Yeah, before I used to work without Estonian,
04:22but it was just like part-time jobs.
04:24Varvara keeps looking, with help now from language courses
04:27through Estonia's Unemployment Insurance Fund.
04:30Steven is looking too, and they're not alone.
04:33Across Europe, young people are hitting the same wall.
04:36Even a university degree is no longer a guarantee.
