To my dear friend, whose love for his city is as gentle as it is bright.
You asked me to be analytical, as I tend to be — to impartially look at cold hard numbers in search for even harder truths. I’ll try, but I’m not sure I’ll manage required detachment… for I always remember the nostalgic and delicate softness seeping in your voice — when you start talking about Visaginas
At first glance in things that matter Visaginas is comparable to the average of Lithuania. For example, let’s look at monthly wages:
Visaginas is a bit low, meaning things could be better — but there is no reason to say that they are plain bad. Especially since they are improving: monthly wage is rising and probably will continue to rise — let’s take a look at population:
So Visaginas was losing its population, yes… just as Lithuania as a whole. And just like with Lithuania as a whole, things improved in recent years — the patterns, if not numbers (do note, that the scales for axes are different), coincide. So let’s search for something that doesn’t — something that isn’t as good as it should be, that isn’t rising as it should…
Ah. There.
Ah. There.
What you see is the graph of employment in non-financial sector. The crisis of 2008 has hitted Lithuania hard, as we can see, many people have lost their jobs — but then, starting in 2010, the Lithuania as a whole recovered and went further up…
Visaginas has not.
If I were to guess, I’d say that the closing of the Ignalina station has taken its toll — combined with the consequences of Great Recession it made a blow to available jobs truly devastating, and the situation hasn’t improved since.
Which… surprisingly cannot be said about combined wages and salaries:
Visaginas has not.
If I were to guess, I’d say that the closing of the Ignalina station has taken its toll — combined with the consequences of Great Recession it made a blow to available jobs truly devastating, and the situation hasn’t improved since.
Which… surprisingly cannot be said about combined wages and salaries:
Lithuania as a whole has taken a blow in 2008 and then recovered and went even further up — Visaginas has not recovered up to the values it had previously (maximum of 2008), but it is recovering, the combined wages and salaries do increase…
But that will not fix the deficit of jobs. Especially since population of Visaginas also increased in recent years — and so, consequently, did the amount of people of working age:
But that will not fix the deficit of jobs. Especially since population of Visaginas also increased in recent years — and so, consequently, did the amount of people of working age:
Your city needs jobs, my friend.
But you have probably known that without me.
(Data source: Lithuania's official statistics data portal — https://osp.stat.gov.lt/ )
But you have probably known that without me.
(Data source: Lithuania's official statistics data portal — https://osp.stat.gov.lt/ )