“Lithuania’s citizens believe that unemployment remains one of the key concerns in our country. One in two Lithuanians are concerned about situation on the labor market. However, 49 percent of people believe that the effect of the crisis on jobs has already reached its peak. Importantly, the proportion of the respondents sharing this view has increased by 12 percentage points,” Rūta Matulaitienė, a political and social research expert at TNS LT, the market and media research company that conducted the survey in Lithuania, said in a press release.
More than one-third of the respondents mentioned rising prices as the second most important issue with 36 percent describing it as a national-level concern and more than 50 percent, as a personal concern.
Other concerns mentioned by the respondents (by approximately one-fourth) included the general economic situation in Lithuania and taxes.
Among three Baltic countries, perceptions of the current situation of the national economy are most pessimistic in Latvia, with as many as 78 percent saying that the situation is bad. In Estonia, the proportion of the respondents describing the current situation of the national economy as bad is much smaller, 57 percent.
People in Latvia are mostly concerned about unemployment, inflation, and taxes. The Estonians, meanwhile, mention rising prices, unemployment, and economic situation as their main concerns.
Fieldwork for the Eurobarometer survey was conducted in May 2013 and involved direct interviewing of 32,700 respondents in 34 countries. Some 1,029 people were polled in Lithuania.
