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The labour underutilisation rate stood at 12.3% and the unemployment rate at 6.7%
Employment statistics
The labour underutilisation rate stood at 12.3% and the unemployment rate at 6.7% - 2nd Quarter 2021
11 August 2021

Summary

The employed population (4,810.5 thousand people) has increased by 2.8% (128.9 thousand) from the previous quarter, by 4.5% (208.9 thousand) from the year before and by 0.8% (36.3 thousand) from the 2nd quarter of 2019 (two years before).

The employed population absent from work in the reference week has decreased by 37.5% (237.9 thousand) from the previous quarter and by 63.1% (680.3 thousand) from the 2nd quarter of 2020. “Own illness, injury or temporary disability” was the main reason, as it is usually observed in second quarters. Therefore, the volume of hours actually worked has increased by 10.6% from the previous quarter and by 32.1% from a year earlier. On average, each employed person has worked 35 hours per week.

The share of the employed population who has worked always or almost always from home using information and communication technologies, this is, who have worked remotely was 14.9%, covering 717.0 thousand people.

The unemployed population, estimated at 345.7 thousand people, has decreased by 4.0% (14.4 thousand) from the previous quarter and increased by 24.2% (67.3 thousand) from a year earlier, the first one to be covered by a declaration of a state of emergency.

The unemployment rate stood at 6.7%, down 0.4 percentage points (pp) from the previous quarter, up 1.0 pp from a year earlier and up 0.3 pp from the 2nd quarter of 2019.

The labour underutilisation covered 654.2 thousand people, having decreased by 12.3% (92.2 thousand) from the previous quarter and by 12.2% (90.9 thousand) from a year before. Similarly, also the labour underutilisation rate (12.3%) has decreased both from the previous quarter (1.8 pp) and from a year earlier (2.0 pp). To a large extent, the year-on-year decrease in this rate was due to the decrease in the number of inactive persons available to work but not seeking a job.

The inactive population aged 16 and over (3,645.1 thousand people) decreased by 2.9% (107.8 thousand) from the previous quarter and by 6.7% (260.3 thousand) from the 2nd quarter of 2020.


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