Employment grew by 0.4 percent in Romania in the first quarter of 2014, compared to the same period of 2013, according to preliminary data presented by Eurostat. This is lower than the 0.7 percent growth in employment across the European Union.

The statistic doesn’t mention how many employees Romania actually has. In Romania there are different figures from different institutions. The National Statistics Institute (INS) indicated a number of 6.28 million employees in Romania in the fourth quarter of last year, while the Labor Inspection agency, which is subordinated to the Government, said there are some 5.076 million employees who were registered as having their taxes paid at December 31, 2013.

In the Euro area, employment was up 0.2 percent in Q1 2014, compared to Q1 2013.

Among the countries which saw the highest growth in employment are Hungary, with a 3.2 percent increase, Malta, 2.8 percent, and United Kingdom, 2.5 percent.

Eurostat estimates that the total number of employees in the EU was 224.2 million, in the first quarter of 2014.

editor@romania-insider.com