Romania’s employment rate hits 71.3 pct in Q3 2018 but less than 6 in 10 women work

The employment rate for the population in Romania aged 20‐64 years increased by 1 percentage point year-on-year in the third quarter of this year up to 71.3 percent despite low employment of women, exceeding to the national target of 70 percent set for 2020, National Institute of Statistics (INS) data show.

The employment rate for the population aged 20‐64 years was 70.3 percent in Q3 2017.

“In the third quarter of 2018, the economically active population of Romania was 9,214 thousand persons, out of which 8,857 thousand were employed persons and 357 thousand unemployed persons,” INS said.

But employment rate of the working age population aged 15‐64 was only 66.2 percent in Q3 2018, up 0.9 percentage points from Q3 2017.

The low rate of employment in Romania is mainly due to high underemployment rate of women and of the young generation.

“The employment rate was higher for men (73.3 percent as against 57.2 percent for women). By residence area, the employment rate was higher for residents from urban area (65.4 percent as against 65.2 percent in rural area). The employment rate for young people (15‐24 years) was 26.2 percent,” according to official data.