The employment rate of the working-age population (aged 15-64) was 63.8% in 2024, up 0.8 percentage points from the previous year, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), published on Tuesday.
In 2024, the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 was 69.5%, up 0.8 percentage points from the previous year.
According to INS, in 2024 Romania’s active population was 8.304 million people, of whom 7.853 million were employed and 451,000 were unemployed.
INS mentions that the employment rate was higher for men (72.0%, compared to 55.3% for women). By area of residence, the employment rate was higher in urban areas (69.8% compared to 57.0% in rural areas).
The employment rate of young people (aged 15-24) was 19.2% and that of older people (aged 55-64) was 53.4%.
The highest employment rate for people of working age was among higher education graduates (90.0%). 66.5% of people with secondary education and 36.9% of those with low levels of education were employed.
Employees, up from the previous year (+104,800 persons), continued to account for the largest share (85.3%) of the total employed population. In 2024 self-employed and unpaid family workers accounted for 13.3% of the employed population.
The distribution of the employed population by forms of ownership showed that the private sector absorbed 82.8% of the employed population; the public sector accounted for 16.6% of the employed population, and the mixed sector accounted for 0.6% of the employed population.
Professionals in various fields of activity and service workers had the highest shares in the total employed population (17.9% each). Skilled and related workers (17.3%) also accounted for significant shares of the total employed population.
Of all employed persons, 11.3% worked in agriculture, 32.6% in industry and construction and 56.1% in services. As many as 6.968 million people were employed in non-agricultural activities, with significant shares of those employed in manufacturing (21.2%), distributive trades (19.8%) and construction (12.1%).
Of the total number of persons employed, 252,000 (3.2%) worked part-time in 2024.
The vast majority of part-time employed persons worked in the agricultural sector (75.3%).
In 2024, the average actual working week for the main job was 38.7 hours per week; 44,200 people were engaged in secondary activities, working an average of 10.8 hours per week.
The unemployment rate was 5.4%, 0.2 percentage points lower than in the previous year. By gender, the difference between the two unemployment rates was 0.7 percentage points (5.7% for men compared to 5.0% for women), and by area of residence 5.4 percentage points (8.5% in rural areas compared to 3.1% in urban areas). The unemployment rate was highest (23.9%) among young people (aged 15-24).
Unemployment affected low and secondary education graduates to a greater extent, for whom the unemployment rate was 15.2% and 4.4% respectively. The unemployment rate was only 1.9 per cent for those with tertiary education.
The long-term unemployment rate (unemployed for one year and over) was 1.8% and the incidence of long-term unemployment (the share of people unemployed for one year and over in the total unemployed) was 33.4%. For young people (aged 15-24), the long-term unemployment rate (unemployed for six months and over) was 10.0% and the incidence of long-term youth unemployment was 41.9%.
AGERPRES
