Experts say the situation is a result of the crisis in the construction sector which continued its poor performance even in the first three months of this year
TIRANA, July 16 – Unemployment rate in Albania continued rising even in the first three months of 2010, despite the positive GDP growth of 2 percent registered in the first quarter of this year. The latest data published by the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) showed unemployed increased to 13.83 percent during the first quarter of 2010, up from 12.68 percent during the same period last year and 13.75 in the last quarter of 2009.
INSTAT data show the number of jobless people at the end of March increased by another 1,270 compared to the previous quarter and 3,300 year-on-year, reaching 144,608 out of a total labour force of 1.04 million.
However, INSTAT data do not include rural areas, whose population is considered self-employed in the agricultural sector because of possessing land.
Despite criticism by the opposition and some experts, INSTAT says that calculating all people who own land as self-employed is in compliance with the methodology used by Eurostat.
INSTAT says the number of people working in the agricultural sector is 496,190, according to the end of 2009 estimates.
Meanwhile, the number of employees in the private non-agricultural sector reached 236,838 at the end of March increasing by only 0.2 percent year-on-year.
The number of employees working in the public administration remained the same to the last quarter of 2009 at 166,250 people, but fell by more than 310 year-on-year.
Of the 144,000 registered jobless people, only 9,853 people benefited financial assistance during the January-March period. The average level of partial financial assistance is 3,170 lek (30 dollars) a month and 3,700 lek (35 dollars) for full assistance, said INSTAT.
The minimum wage during the first quarter remained unchanged at 18,000 lek (180 dollars), under a May 2009 government decision.
The unemployment rate registered its sharpest increase at the end of 2009 when it climbed to 13.75 percent, up from 12.68 percent at the end of 2008.
Experts say the situation is a result of the crisis in the construction sector which continued its poor performance even in the first three months of this year, dropping by 21.1 percent year-on-year and 4.3 compared to the last quarter of 2009. Construction has been one of the most dynamic sectors in the country contributing to more than 10 percent of the GDP in the past years and employing 18 percent of people working in the private sector.
