The employment rate for population aged 20β64 during the first quarter was at 63.7 percent, according to a press release from the National Statistics Institute (INS). This is over 6 points lower than the national target of 70 percent established in the context of the 2020 Europe Strategy.
The economically active population of Romania was of 8.89 million persons, out of which 8.23 million were employed and 655,000 unemployed.
Employment rate for working age population (15β64 years) was at 59.1 percent, registering a decrease of 1.7 percentage points year on year. The employment degree was higher for men (66.8 percent) than for women (51.4 percent). Employment rate was approximately equal for the two areas of residence (59.5 percent in the urban and 58.7 percent in the rural area). Youth (15β24 years) employment rate was at 23 percent.
By sex, the gap between the two unemployment rates was of 2.4 percentage points (8.4 percent for men against 6 percent for women), while by residential area it was of 0.5 percentage points (7.6 percent for the urban area, against 7.1 percent for the rural area). Among young persons, the unemployment rate reached the highest level quarter on quarter.
Natalia Martian