The unemployment rate in Romania dropped to 5.5% in the last quarter of 2016, from 5.7% in the previous quarter.

The unemployment rate was highest among young people aged 15-24, namely 20.8%, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Women and men continued to record a significant gap in terms of unemployment. The unemployment rate was 5.9% among men and 4.8% among women. It was also higher in rural areas (6.3%) compared to cities (4.8%).

The employment rate of people aged 20-64 amounted to 66.5%, compared to the national target of 70% established in the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Romania had an active population of over 8.8 million people in the fourth quarter of the year. Among them, almost 8.4 million were occupied whereas 485,000 were unemployed. Some 6.3 million people were employed while 2.08 million people worked on their own.

editor@romania-insider.com