Some 1,500 more workers fired than hired during lockdown

Some 1,500 more people have been fired than hired in Lithuania since the introduction of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown in mid-March, Social Security and Labor Minister Linas Kukuraitis said on Tuesday, adding that there are currently 200,000 registered unemployed people in the country.

Data from the Employment Service show that the country's registered unemployment rate now stands at 11.8 percent of the working-age population and that the ranks of the unemployed have grown by 42,900 people, or 26.5 percent, since the start of the lockdown.

Kukuraitis said the situation is improving as people are gradually returning to work, noting that 12,000 more persons have been hired than fired since the start of June.

The number of furloughed employees currently totals around 40,000, according to the minister.