According to official statistics, Romanian workers are paid better and better and, at first glance, you wouldn’t even say that living in Romania is so difficult.
According to an analysis recently published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the hourly labor cost increased by 14% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2022. It is important to specify that, compared to the beginning of 2022, the cost working hours (adjusted for the number of working days) increased in all economic activities.
Are we winning better or are the statistics lying?
Official data shows that, in the first part of the current year, the hourly labor cost in adjusted form (by the number of working days) registered a growth rate of 2.29%.
If we make a comparison with the similar period last year, the growth is downright impressive. We are talking about an advance of plus 14.33%.
Other interesting data regarding the labor market in Romania refer to unemployment. According to the INS, the unemployment rate** in April 2023 was 5.6%, increasing by 0.1 percentage points compared to that recorded in March 2023 (5.5%). The unemployment rate for men was 1.1 percentage points higher than for women.
The estimated number of unemployed (aged 15-74) for April 2023 was 461.1 thousand people:
– increasing compared to the previous month (454.1 thousand people);
– increasing compared to the same period of the previous year (454.0 thousand people).
By gender, the unemployment rate for men exceeded that of women by 1.1 percentage points (respective values being 6.1% for men and 5.0% for women). The high level of unemployment among young people (15-24 years) still attracts attention, at 21.7%.
“For adults (25-74 years old), the unemployment rate was estimated at 4.6% for April 2023 (4.1% for women and 5.0% for men). The number of unemployed aged 25-74 represented 76.9% of the total number of unemployed estimated for April 2023”, the INS also transmitted.
