Romania’s jobless rate rises, but not dramatically yet

The unemployment rate in Romania under the ILO methodology, namely reflecting the active population actively seeking jobs, rose to 5.2% in May from 4.8% in April, and 3.9% in May 2019.

The data, published by the statistics office INS, reflects the seasonally adjusted data.

In May, the number of people seeking jobs was 463,363, up from 386,257 in February before the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown.

However, the Government was still supporting companies to keep their employees under technical unemployment status in May. Thus, the figures might further rise in June and the coming months as the companies will gradually lose the state's support.

Separately, the Romanians returned from abroad are unlikely to seek jobs home (which would push ILO unemployment further up). Still, many are just waiting for the relaxation in Western Europe to return there. Unless severe employment problems are seen in Germany, Spain or Italy, the effect of the returned Romanians will be only marginal since the bulk of them fill a segment of the labor market where the supply is scarce in those countries (low-paid jobs).

(Photo source: Tero Vesalainen/Dreamstime.com)