3.1 General context
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Labour market situation in the country
The youth unemployment rate in Romania in December 2020 was 23.4%, for the 15-24 years old age segment, according to the Romanian National Institute for Statistics, compared to 19% in December 2020. A decrease of the youth unemployment percentage was constant since 2015 (23.5%) until 2019, but the trend has been stopped by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this has to be put in the context of a general unemployment value of 5.9% in Romania for December 2021, young people being the age group the most affected by unemployment.
The information and data available are relevant only for the age segment 15-24.
Main concepts
According to the law on employment and unemployment, law no. 76/2002, ‘Unemployed’ is the person who cumulatively fulfils the following conditions:
- is 16 or older, is looking for a job and does not meet the retirement conditions;
- the state of health and the physical and mental capacities allow the person to perform a job;
- the person does not work, does not earn any income from authorised activities according to the law, or has lower income than the country-wide minimum gross salary guaranteed;
- the person is available to start work in the immediate period if there is a vacancy.
According to the law on employment and unemployment, law no. 76/2002, ‘registered unemployed’ is the person who cumulatively fulfils the conditions set out previously and is registered with the employment agency in whose territorial range resides.