Romania’s unemployment rate falls to decades-low following data revision

Romania’s unemployment rate (under ILO standard) stood in July to 4.2 percent – the lowest level in more than two decades – for the third month in a row, despite a slight increase of jobless number, National Institute of Statistics (INS) revised data showed on Friday.

The level of 4.2 percent is the lowest since International Labour Organization (ILO) unemployment statistical data are available in Romania (1993).

Last month, INS said that the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in May and 4.5 percent in June, but the series were revised downward this month.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.2 percent in July, the same level to that of May and June but declined by 0.8 percentage point from July 2017.

The number of unemployed persons aged 15-74 was 385,823 in July, compared with 377,261 in June and 452,953 in July 2017, according to official seasonally adjusted data.

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The unemployment rate among men exceeds the rate among women by 1.3 percentage point, with 4.8 percent for men and 3.5 percent for women.

The unemployment rate represents the share of unemployed in the active population.

Few available jobs

Experts warn that Romania still has few available jobs compared to its total active population, and this factor limits its growth potential.

“The Romanian labor market offers a pretty complex and slightly puzzling perspective. In the 15-64-year old category, there are roughly 4.9 million employees in an active population of around 8.8 million. By contrast, neighboring Hungary has roughly 4.4 million employees and an active population of 4.6 million,” ING analysts said in a recent report.

Experts warn that Romania needs to maintain a high rate of jobs creation in order to keep structural unemployment under control.