Statistics show decrease in unemployment rate

The unemployment rate in Moldova stood at 3.6 percent in the third quarter of this year, while the rate of the unemployed in the active population decreased by 5.1 percent from the similar period last year, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the National Statistics Bureau, the rates of unemployment among men and women are similar in value: 3.9 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Significant disparities were recorded between the rates of unemployment in urban and rural communities – 5.9 percent to 1.8 percent. The unemployment among the youth (ages 15 to 24) constituted 13.9 percent. In the age category 15 to 29 years unemployment stood at 9 percent. The number of the unemployed persons, calculated according to the methodology of the International Labor Office, was around 48,700, by 21,400 less than in the similar period last year. The declared number of persons working abroad or seeking jobs abroad was roughly 340,000. About two thirds of them were men and also about two thirds are from rural communities. In the third quarter of 2008, the economically active population (the employed plus the unemployed) of Moldova constituted about 1.36 million people, remeining practically at the level registered in the third quarter of 2007.