In an LTV interview on 11 November 2026, Latvijas Banka Governor Mārtiņš Kazāks advocated reducing public-sector employment and supporting retraining. He referred to longer-term differences between the public and private sectors. This is a recommendation, not an approved redundancy plan.
The public sector is broader than the civil service
The State Chancellery also includes municipalities, higher education institutions and certain companies in the public sector. Civil servants are only one employee group. Any reform therefore needs to specify the affected functions and professions.
Job counts and full-time equivalents measure different things.
What do the latest comparable figures show?
The Central Statistical Bureau’s corrected report for the second quarter of 2026 shows occupied posts increasing year on year by 1.4% in the private sector and 1.5% in the public sector. This quarterly comparison therefore cannot demonstrate a shrinking private sector.
Our analytical conclusion: a long-term trend and one quarter’s annual change are different questions. Justifying a reform requires a clearly identified time series, comparable indicators and a review of functions.
What can a business do now?
The State Employment Agency, NVA, offers workplace training for registered unemployed people. Participation has eligibility requirements and requires approval; it is not an automatic subsidy for every new employee.
- Identify specific missing skills rather than only a desired job title.
- Calculate training time, the mentor’s workload and the pay budget.
- Discuss suitable measures and candidate selection with NVA.
- Assess each candidate’s experience individually, rather than by their former employer’s sector.
Potential employee transfers do not themselves guarantee that a company will find the specialists it needs in a particular region. Sustainable employment and maintained public-service quality would be important measures of a reform’s success. Businesses also have reason to ask about expected service delivery times: savings lose practical value if document processing slows down and preparing transactions takes longer.
When planning company administration, compare in-house resources with outsourcing: explore services for businesses and review business listings.
Official information sources
- Central Statistical Bureau: jobs in the second quarter of 2026
- State Chancellery: sector and employment indicators explained
- NVA: workplace training
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