Number of jobless persons has increased

The economically active population of Moldova over January-March this year fell by 3.3% or about 40,000 people compared with the corresponding period last year, down to 1.181 million. The share of employed persons decreased from 94.5% to 92.3%, while the share of unemployed persons rose from 5.5% to 7.7%, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the National Bureau of Statistics. About 22.9% of the total persons employed worked in the agricultural sector, as against 26.1% in the first quarter of 2008. Each second person working in agriculture continued to work in their own auxiliary farms. The employees in industry made up 14.18%. 64.5% of the population worked in private companies, 30.5% – in public companies, while 4.9% – in joint (public and private) companies. By the professional status, the salaried employees made up 75.5% of the total. The number of persons out of work calculated according to the methodology of the International Labor Office was about 90,900, by 23,500 more compared with the first quarter of 2008. 63.8% of the unemployed were men. The persons without a job in urban areas made up 55.6% of the total. The National Bureau of Statistics divides the inactive population into two groups – persons that gave up looking for the job they want (about 38,000) and persons that went abroad to work or look for a job (272,500). According to the National Employment Agency, its local offices over January-April provided 9,400 job vacancies. Out of these, 6,300 were intended for laborers, while 3,100 for specialists.