INS: Unemployment rate down 0.2pct to 5.2pct in Q3 against Q2

The unemployment rate in the third quarter of this year was 5.2 per cent, down 0.2 per cent from the previous quarter, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), on Tuesday. The unemployment rate for men was 5.4 per cent, and for women was 5 per cent, in the said interval. "By gender, the gap between the two unemployment rates was 0.4 percentage points (5.4 per cent for men compared to 5.0 per cent for women), and by residential areas, it was 1.2 percentage points (5, 9 per cent in rural areas, compared to 4.7 per cent in urban areas)," showed the INS. By age groups, the unemployment rate reached the highest level (19.2 per cent) among young people (15-24 years). According to the INS data, in the third quarter of 2020, the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 was 71.2 per cent, by 1.2 percentage points above the national target of 70 per cent set in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The employment rate of the working-age population (15-64 years) was, in the third quarter of 2020, of 66 per cent, up by 0.8 percentage points against the previous quarter. The employment rate was higher for men (74.9 per cent compared to 56.9 per cent for women) and for people from urban areas (67.4 per cent compared to 64.4 per cent in rural areas). The employment rate of young people (15-24 years) was 24.7 per cent. Also, in the third quarter of 2020, the active population of Romania accounted for 9.027 million people, of whom 8.555 million people were employed and 472,000 unemployed. AGERPRES (RO - author: George Banciulea, editor: Nicoleta Gherasi, EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)