The unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2016 fell to 5.5% against the previous quarter when it stood at 5.7% and the highest unemployment rate of 20.8% was recorded among young people (15 to 24 years), according to data released on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
By gender, the gap between the two unemployment rates was of one percentage point (5.9% for men and 4.9% for women), while by residence it is of 1.5 percentage points (6.3% in rural areas, compared to 4.8% in urban areas).
In Q4 2016, the employment rate of the working age population (15-64 years) was of 61.6%, down from the previous quarter by 1.5 percentage points. The employment rate was higher for men (70% versus 53.1% for women) and for people in urban areas (63.9% versus 58.8% in rural areas). The employment rate of young people (15-24 years) was of 21.5%.
The employment rate of the population aged 20-64 years was of 66.5%, by 3.5 percentage points away from the national target of 70% set in the Europe 2020 strategy.
In Q4 last year, Romania’s active population was of 8.879 million, of which 8.394 million people were employed and 485,000 people were unemployed.