The unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2021 was 5.1%, down one percentage point from the previous quarter. In the second quarter of 2021, the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 was 67.5%. In the second quarter of 2021, Romania’s active population was 8.26 million people, of which 7.84 million people were employed and 418,000 people were unemployed, data published Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) and cited by news.ro show.
“In the second quarter of 2021, the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 was 67.5%. In the second quarter of 2021, Romania’s active population was 8,261,000 people, of which: 7,843,000 people were employed and 418,000 people were unemployed,” INS data show.
Starting from 2021, the methodology of the Household Labour Force Survey has been revised to meet the requirements of the new European regulations that came into force on 1 January 2021. The most important change concerns the exclusion from employment of persons who produce agricultural goods intended exclusively or mainly for self-consumption and has a noticeable impact on the survey estimates, in particular in terms of: a reduction in the number of employed and active population (as well as in employment and activity rates) and an increase in the unemployment rate (mainly due to the decrease in the active population which is the denominator of the indicator).
For this reason, the data published for quarters I and II 2021 are not comparable with those published for quarters prior to 2021, the NSI states.
The employment rate of the working-age population (15-64 years) was 62.4% in the second quarter of 2021, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous quarter. The employment rate was higher for men (71.6% compared to 52.9% for women) and for people in urban areas (67.4% compared to 56.4% in rural areas).
The employment rate for young people (15-24 years) was 22%.
The unemployment rate in Q2 2021 was 5.1%, down one percentage point from the previous quarter.
By gender, the gap between the two unemployment rates was 0.4 percentage points (5.2% for men vs. 4.8% for women), and by residential background, 4 percentage points (7.4% in rural areas vs. 3.4% in urban areas).
By age group, the unemployment rate was highest (17.6%) among young people (15-24 years).
Apart from the 7,843,000 employed persons, a further 780,000 persons worked in their own agricultural household to produce agricultural goods intended exclusively or mainly for self-consumption, and were in one of the following situations: either only a small part of the agricultural production obtained is intended for sale, or the agricultural production obtained is intended exclusively for self-consumption and represents a substantial part of the total household consumption.
These persons, included in the employed population according to the survey methodology used up to 2020 (inclusive), are from Q1 2021 onwards considered as inactive or unemployed (depending on whether or not they meet the 3 criteria used in the definition of BIM unemployment).
Together with persons in employment, they make up the “productive population” whose number was 8,623,000 persons in Q2 2021. This indicator is only defined in the national context and corresponds to the employed population calculated according to the definition used prior to 2021.
The productive population rate – calculated for the age group 15-64 years was 66.3% in Q2 2021 and 71.7% for the age group 20-64 years.
Edited for English