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The public report of Jelgava City Municipality for the past year has been published. The information gathered in it says that last year 696 newborns were registered in the city, 220 new companies were registered, and despite the decline in economic activities caused by the pandemic, the average wage has increased. In 2020, it has risen by 48 euros.

The public report of Jelgava City Municipality for 2020 was approved by the deputies in May during the City Council meeting. It includes basic information about the city’s population, employment, economy and information about the municipality and its capital companies. The task of the public report is to inform the public about the objectives of the local government, the achieved results and the use of budget funds.

For Jelgava, 2020 has been a challenging year, marked by an unprecedented situation in our country and around the world – the Covid-19 pandemic. This required the municipality to focus as much as possible on resolving the crisis situation and making accurate, balanced decisions. Also last year, the struggle to preserve the status of a large city for Jelgava – the fourth largest city in the country in terms of population, Zemgale economic, educational and cultural center – required a lot of strength, time and human resources. Jelgava managed to protect its status, and from July 1, it will be a state city.

According to the data of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, in January 2021 there were 60,564 inhabitants in Jelgava, but in January 2020 there were 60,798 inhabitants registered in Jelgava. In 2020, 696 children were registered in the Jelgava Registry Office, a year earlier – 701, 1007 people died (in 2019 – 793).

Data from the State Revenue Service show that in 2020, the city had 23,906 employees, compared to 2019, the number of employees decreased by 4.8 percent, which can be explained by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The largest share of employees in Jelgava was still made up of Jelgava residents – 52.3 percent of the total number of employees or 12,513 people. Residents of Riga – 8.3 percent – and residents of the surrounding counties had also found work in our city: 16.1 percent from Jelgava county, 5.2 percent from Ozolnieki county and 2.4 percent from Dobele county. The total number of employees in Jelgava last year was 33,426, of which the city employed 37.4 percent or 12,513 Jelgava residents, but 36.7 percent or 12,261 inhabitants had found jobs in Riga.

With the rapid spread of Covid-19 and the decline in economic activity, after a steady decline for ten years, the unemployment rate in Latvia and also in Jelgava in 2020 showed an increase again. The average unemployment rate in Jelgava in 2020 was five percent (3.5 percent a year earlier), which was the third lowest among the cities of the republic after Valmiera (4.2 percent) and Riga (4.7 percent). At the end of 2020, there were 1265 unemployed residents of Jelgava registered with the State Employment Agency, which is 404 people more than at the end of 2019.

In recent years, the average monthly wage of employees has increased in Jelgava, in the regions and in the country as a whole. In 2020, in Jelgava, it was 1,091 euros, which is 48 euros more than in 2019.

According to Lursoft data, in 2019 there were 4116 economically active enterprises (4103 in 2018), including 2433 sole proprietors and commercial companies (2419 in 2018), i.e. 43 enterprises per 1000 inhabitants. The number of commercial companies and sole proprietors per 1000 inhabitants in Jelgava is increasing every year. In 2020, 220 new companies were registered in Jelgava, but 215 were liquidated.

According to Lursoft data, the largest companies in Jelgava in 2020 were: VSIA “Slimnīca” Ģintermuiža”” – 521 employees, SIA “Jelgavas pilsētas slimnīca” – 512, SIA “AKG Thermotechnik Lettland” – 285 (2019 data) , SIA “Jelgavas nekustamā īpašuma pārvalde” – 229, SIA “Jelgavas poliklīnika” – 210, SIA “KULK” – 188 (data of 2019), SIA “Luwo” – 159, SIA “Jelgavas tipogrāfija” – 156, SIA ” Zemgales veselības centrs”- 132, SIA” Jelgavas autobusu parks “- 110 employees. One of the largest employers in Jelgava is also Latvia university of Life sciences and Technologies, where as of October 1, 2020 there were 1129 employees (as of October 1, 2019 – 1158), including 482 of the total staff of LLU, academic staff and guest lecturers.

The public report is available in electronic format on the city website www.jelgava.lv in the section “Municipality”, subsection “Documents”, “Public reports”.