The December 2016 unemployment rate stood at 10.2%, down by 0.3 percentage points (p.p.) from the previous month’s level and by 0.7 p.p. from three months before. That value is identical to the provisional estimate released one month ago (10.2%). That estimate is also the lowest observed since March 2009 (10.0%).
The December unemployed population was estimated at 520.7 thousand people, having decreased by 3.2% from the previous month’s level (17.3 thousand fewer people), while the employed population was estimated at
4,601.6 thousand people, having increased by 0.4% (16.9 thousand more people) from the previous month’s level.
The provisional unemployment rate estimate for January 2017 was 10.2%. For this month, the provisional estimate for the unemployed population was 521.8 thousand people and for the employed population was 4,593.2 thousand people.