In the 2nd quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate decreased to 6.3%, 0.5 percentage points (pp) lower than the previous quarter and 0.4 pp lower than the same quarter of the previous year.
The unemployed population, estimated at 328.5 thousand people, decreased by 7.1% (25.1 thousand) from the previous quarter and by 6.6% (23.3 thousand) from the same quarter of 2018.
The employed population (4,916.7 thousand people) recorded a quarterly increase of 0.7% (36.5 thousand) and a year-on-year increase of 0.9% (42.6 thousand).
The youth (15 to 24 years old) unemployment rate stood at 18.1% and increased by 0.5 pp from the previous quarter, but decreased by 1.3 pp from the same quarter of the previous year. The share of unemployed people looking for a job for 12 months or longer (long-term unemployment) was 53.1%, up 6.3 pp from the previous quarter and up 0.8 pp from the same quarter of the previous year.