During the design and construction phase, Rail Baltica will provide a significant boost to employment possibilities, especially in the construction sector, thereby contributing to the smoothing out of the business cycle by providing a timely upshift in labor demand in the current low-growth environment. Furthermore, it will help ameliorate the negative effects of the decline of employment opportunities in the traditional 1520mm railway system, by inducing the migration of railway professionals from the more traditional Baltic railway industry segments to the new European gauge railway ecosystem. This would, in the longer term, lead to the emergence of highly competent professionals with expertise of both railway systems. As the project enters the operational phase, new sustainable jobs will emerge in infrastructure management and maintenance, station and terminal management, as well as all types of passenger and freight operations. Rail Baltica implementation shall serve as a platform for the creation of a regional center of excellence and competence, accumulating best practice know-how and expertise from other large cross-border projects, promoting technological transfer and breeding innovation for the first time at such a scale in the Baltics and thereby developing internationally competitive expertise to be exported to other cross-border projects in the future.
On the macro level, Rail Baltica will greatly enhance the Baltic labor market connectivity. Job catchment areas, especially along the Rail Baltica route, will expand enabling new daily commute patterns between hitherto distant agglomerations. Labor mobility is a critical factor to improve the flexibility of the labor market and make it more resilient when facing economic downturns. In the same vein, multiple higher education institutions along the Rail Baltica will expand their student catchment areas by becoming more immediately and conveniently accessible.