Estonian Human Development Report

ment and the opportunities based thereon. Nevertheless,
a great difference in expectations and actual achievements
may cause dissatisfaction with opportunities in the labour
market.
From Figure 4.5.1., it appears that the salary expectations
of non-Estonians are more differentiated than
those of Estonians – when looking for work, they often
ask for higher salaries (more than 4 times the minimum
wage) and somewhat more often for lower salaries (less
than 2 times the minimum wage) compared to Estonians.
The number of young people who are satisfied
with lower wages does not differ by ethnic group. Generally
the salary expectations of older people were the
most modest, whereas 60–75-year-old non-Estonians
have particularly low salary expectations, with almost
half asking a maximum of twice the minimum wage for
their work.
The assessments of non-Estonians and Estonians
regarding the opportunities for using the educational
potential they have acquired differs little, while the differences
are significant in younger age groups (Figure
4.5.2.). Compared to their Estonian contemporaries, 15–
24-year-old non-Estonians are less likely to accept jobs
that require an educational level lower than the one they
have. The positive attitude of young non-Estonians is not
shared by older non-Estonians, and even 25–39-year-old
non-Estonians are more likely than Estonians to accept
jobs that are below their educational potential. One of the
reasons for the greater positivism on the part of non-Estonians
in the younger age group may be the lack of experience
in actual labour market competition, which means
that their assessment may be based on expectations rather
then actual experience. Nevertheless, this group is most
likely to have Estonian citizenship and good Estonian language
proficiency, which may be the basis for their expectations.
From Figure 4.5.2., it also appears that the assessments
of the oldest group of Estonians and non-Estonians
do not differ substantially as an approximately similar
percentage of older people in both ethnic groups would
accept jobs that presume lower educational levels than the
ones they have.
Estonians consider their skills/knowledge to be sufficient
for finding suitable jobs somewhat more often
than non-Estonians (see Figure 4.5.3.). Although young
non-Estonian are characterized by high salary expectations,
and greater demands regarding the correspondence
between the job and educational level, their assessment
of the adequacy of their skills for finding acceptable
work is considerably more pessimistic. Figure 4.5.3.
shows that about half of 15–24-year-old non-Estonians
believe that their skills are inadequate for finding a
suitable job (among Estonians this percentage is 38%).
Young non-Estonians’ negative opinion on the adequacy
of their skills may also be related to generally high expectations,
although this nevertheless demonstrates greater
uncertainty among young non-Estonians regarding their
work-related knowledge. Compared to older age groups,
young people generally give the adequacy of their skills
a more negative assessment, although this may also be
caused by lack of work experience, or by the fact that the
young people who are still studying do not consider their
skills to be adequate for getting an acceptable job. Similar
to young non-Estonians, more than half of the oldest
age group of non-Estonians assesses their work-related
Figure 4.5.1. Salary expectations of Estonians and
non-Estonians by age group, %
15–24
25–39
40–59
60–75
All
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Up to twice the
minimum wage
More than 4 times
the minimum wage
52 8
30 13
21
14 28
16 20
12 40
13 23
18 25
17 20
75 50 25 0 25 50
Source: Integration of Estonian Society: Monitoring 2008.
Figure 4.5.2. The assessment of Estonians and non-
Estonians to use their educational potential (willing
to accept a job that assumes a lower education level
than the one they possess) by age group, %
15–24
25–39
40–59
60–75
All
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Source: Integration of Estonian Society: Monitoring 2008.
55
59
63
64
58
62
59
55
46
49
75 50 25 0 25 50 75
14 37 6
34
10
14
11
3
3
6
28
2
2
21
21
22
23
15
12
13
17
10
15
17
17
24
27
22
27
23
17
43
35
45
41
37
36
42
38
41
45
47
20
54
51
47
49
27
54
54
58
59
58
Willing to
accept a
job that
assumes
a lower
education
level
Not willing
to accept
a job that
assumes
a lower
education
level
Figure 4.5.3. Assessments of Estonians and non-
Estonians regarding their work-related skills/knowledge,
by age group, %
15–24
25–39
40–59
60–75
All
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
Non-
Estonians
Estonians
75 50 25 0 25 50 75 100
Generally insufficient Totally insufficient Generally sufficient Totally sufficient
Source: Integration of Estonian Society: Monitoring 2008.
97 |