As in the previous years, the employment rate was higher for men (71.4%, compared to 54.4% for women). By area of residence, the employment rate was higher in urban areas (69.7%, compared to 56.0% in rural areas).
In 2025, the economically active population of Romania was 8.19 million persons, out of which 7.69 million were employed persons and 500,300 were unemployed persons.
The highest employment rate for working age population was registered among persons with tertiary education (90.1%). 65.8% of persons with medium level of education and 34.9% of those with low level of education were employed.
The unemployment rate was 6.1%, up 0.7 percentage points from the 2024 level.
By sex, the gap between the two unemployment rates was 0.2 percentage point (6.2% for men compared to 6.0% for women), while by residential areasit was 6.8 percentage points (9.8% for rural area, compared to 3.0% for urban area).
By age groups, the unemployment rate reached the highest level (26.1%) among young persons (15-24 years).
Employees, decreasing compared to the previous year (-13,5 thousand persons), continued to hold the highest share of total employment (86.9%). In 2025, self-employed and unpaid family workers represented 11.7% of total employment.
The distribution of the employed population by ownership type shows that the private sector absorbed 82.3% of the employed persons; the public sector accounted for 17.1% of the employed population and 0.6% of employed persons worked in the mixed sector.
Out of the total number of employed persons, 10.1% worked in the agricultural sector, 32.4% in industry and constructions and 57.5% in services. In non-agricultural activities 6918.3 thousand persons were employed, significant shares being held by those working in manufacturing (20.4%), trade (19.9%) and constructions (12.2%).
In 2025, out of the total number of employed persons, 189.4 thousand people (2.5%) worked part-time. Most of the part-time workers were employed in agriculture (66.4%).
In 2025, the actual average duration of working week in the main activity was 38.2 hours per week; 43.3 thousand persons carried out also secondary activities, working on average 10.6 hours per week.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)