Unemployment further drops
Story Highlights
- official unemployment rate for the population aged 15 and over, is 12.1 percent
- employment rate for the population aged 15-64 in the first quarter of 2019 is 60.3 percent
- employment rate for men is 67.4 percent, while for women 53.3 percent
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TIRANA, June 12- The unemployment level has marked another decline in the first quarter of the year, reaching record minimal levels, both for men and women. A positive note was an increase in employment among youth. The official unemployment rate in Albania for the population aged 15 and over, is 12.1 percent. Compared to the first quarter of 2018, the official unemployment rate declined by 0.4 percentage points.
The employment rate for the population aged 15-64 in the first quarter of 2019 is 60.3 percent. Compared to the same period last year the total number of employees grew by 1.4 percent. The employment rate for men is 67.4 percent, while for women 53.3 percent. Compared to the same period last year, the employment rate for men increased by 0.9 percentage points and for women by 1.4 percentage points. The employment rate of youth is 41 percent, and for the population 30-64 years the rate is 70.6 percent.
The participation rate in the labor force for the population aged 15-64 is 69 percent. Compared with the first quarter of 2018, the rate of participation in the labor force is 1 percentage points higher. The participation rate for women in the labor force is 60.8 percent, while for men this indicator is 77.2 percent. Compared with the same quarter of 2018, the rate of participation in women's labor force increased by 1.3 percentage points, while for men it increased by 0.6 percentage points. The participation rate in the labor force for young people aged 15-29 is 52.7 percent. For the population of 30-64 years, the participation rate in the labor force is 77.6 percent.
The annual growth rate of employment for the population of 15 years and over (from the first quarter of 2018 in the first quarter of 2019) is 1.4 percent. In annual terms based on the main sectors of the economy, employment grew by 3 percent in the industry sector and 3.6 percent in the services sector, while in the agriculture sector it decreased by 1.8 percent.
Regarding unemployment, the official rate declined by 0.4 percentage points in annual terms. The official rate for men is 12.2 percent and for women it is 11.9 percent. Compared to the same period last year, the rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points for both men and women. The official rate for young people is 22.2 percent. In annual terms, the youth unemployment rate appears to be declining as compared to the same period last year the indicator is 2.3 percentage points lower. And the unemployment rate for the age group 30-64 is 9.1 percent. In annual terms this indicator decreased by 0.1 percentage points.
However, 17.8 percent of the economically inactive and working-age population (15-64 years) were performing household duties during the observed period, 12.5 percent ”‹”‹of them were retired or early retirement, and 11,7 percent in permanent disability. 10.3 percent of the economically inactive population stated that they were not looking for work because they believed that there were no jobs available, so they classified as discouraged unemployed. Young people aged 15-29 who stated that they are students/trainees constitute 71.7 percent of the economically inactive youth. Among the economically inactive youth, 8.3 percent are classified as discouraged unemployed. The population aged 30-64 accounts for 12.6 percent of the economically inactive population of this age group.
But other administrative data does not provide such an optimistic picture. According to the indicator “Employed by Administrative Resources and the Agricultural Sector,” which reports to employees paying social security and taken from the General Directorate of Taxation, at the end of March 2019, there were 502.5 thousand employees in the non-agricultural private sector, or 44.5 percent of total employees. In the last six months a total of 15.6 thousand private sector employees have jutted off the social insurance scheme. This decline came as in the third quarter of 2018 there was a significant increase in the number of employees (13.4 thousand persons) mainly related to the seasonal effects of tourism and the fact that the taxes started an action to reduce informality in this sector. But it seems that the private economy has not managed to generate stable jobs, as at the end of the first quarter 2019 there were only 734 more employed in the payroll of businesses compared to the same period a year earlier.
