The employment rate for Romania’s working age population (15 – 64 years) was 63 percent in 2023, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous year, shows data released on Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
„Just like in the previous years, the employment rate was higher for men (71.7 percent compared to 54.3 percent for female employment), as was the urban employment rate (68.6 percent compared to 57.1 percent in rural areas). The employment rate for young people (15 – 24 years) was 18.7 percent, and that for seniors (55 – 64 years) was 51.0 percent,” the INS statement reads.
Employees, whose number dropped by 60,100 from 2022, still accounted for the largest share (85.7 percent) of the total working population. In 2023, self-employed workers and unpaid family workers represented 13 percent of the employed population.
By ownership form, the private sector absorbed 82.8 percent of the working population, the public sector concentrates 16.6 percent thereof, and 0.6 percent of the persons employed worked in the mixed sector.
Of the total number of employed persons, 11.9 percent worked in agriculture, 33.2 percent in industry and construction, and 54.9 percent in the service sector.
Almost 6.78 million people were active in non-agricultural jobs, the most significant shares being recorded by the manufacturing industry (22.2 percent), trade (19.7 percent), and construction (11.9 percent).
Of the total number of people employed in 2023, 282,900 (3.7 percent) worked part-time, with the agricultural sector taking up the vast majority of this category (76.3 percent).
Romania’s unemployment rate was 5.6 percent, equal to the figure recorded in the previous year. By gender, the gap between male and female unemployment rates was 0.8 percentage points (5.9 percent for men, as to 5.1 percent for women), while by residential areas the gap was 5.8 percentage points (8.8 percent in rural areas compared to 3 percent in urban areas). The youth unemployment rate (15 – 24 years) was the highest – at 21.8 percent.
AGERPRES
