Romania's unemployment rate at 5.5 pct at end-2016

Romania’s unemployment rate at 5.5 pct at end-2016

Newsroom 31/01/2017 | 11:49

The number of unemployed people from Romania went down in December 2016 to 506,758, by 14,444 than November, reaching a new minimum level after the economic crisis from 2008, while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent, according to the data of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) from Tuesday.

In November 2016, in Romania there were 521,202 unemployed people and the unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, according to the revised data of INS.

The revised data shows that the number of unemployed people dropped by 109,000 in the last year, from 616,001 in December 2015, according to News.ro.

The unemployment is still the highest among men, with an employment rate of 6.3 percent in December 2016, while among women, the unemployment rate is 4.5 percent.

The unemployment rate had a mixed evolution in 2016, registering drops in the first four month of the year, in June, August, November and December, but also increases in May, July, September and October.

The decrease in unemployment in 2016 was generated mainly by the rapid growth of the work force demand, especially in the developed areas around big metropolis.

However, the companies’ heads complain more and more about the lack of qualified labor force, which starts to diminish the businesses development in Romania.

The official data shows that the number of vacancies from Romania went up in the third quarter of 2016 by 16.5 percent compared with 2015.

The counties Vaslui and Teleorman have the highest levels of unemployment rates, with 11.5 percent, respectively 10.9 percent, according to the National Agency of Labor Force.