The employment rate among people aged 20 to 64, an indicator of how economically active the population is, dropped to 66.2% in the first quarter of this year, down from 66.5% in the last three months of 2016.

The employment rate is still far from the target set for 2020, which provides a minimum of 70%, according to the National Statistics Institute (INS).

Romania had a total active population of 8.8 million at the end of March, with 8.3 million of them working and 481,000 unemployed. Of those working, some 6.3 million were employed, and 2 million people were business owners, self-employed workers, unpaid family workers, and members of an agricultural or non-agricultural cooperative.

The employment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 was 21.4%. The lowest employment rate, amounting to 7.7%, was among those above 65.

Employment rate goes slightly up in Romania in 2016

editor@romania-insider.com