Unemployment, Poverty and Social Policy Response in the Baltic Countries after System Transformation

The purpose of this study is to identify the patterns of unemployment and poverty experienced after systemic transition in the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and social policy responses to solve them, using literature analysis and non-face-to-face interview methods. As a result of the analysis, the three Baltic countries were exposed to the social problems of unemployment and poverty in the process of introducing a radical market economy system, and the social policies to solve them were unemployment assistance (1991), unemployment insurance (1996 and 2002), It was the ALMP (early 2000s), the poverty policy (early 2000s) with definitions and targets for poverty, and official poverty lines. The post-socialist social policies of the three Baltic countries in response to the realities of the socialist welfare system, such as concealed unemployment under full employment, formal job placement and weak vocational training, and the universalization of poverty hidden behind propaganda, were ex post and weak in policy effectiveness.