Unemployment down for ninth consecutive month after 20 months on the rise

The unemployment rate fell for the ninth consecutive month in December last year, to 6.87%, corresponding to nearly 630,000 unemployed.
There are several explanations for the unemployment rate decline: people who did not find work, but exceeded the period during which unemployment benefits are granted, people employed in the informal sector, new hirings in the private sector, people legally employed abroad. Over 110,000 people saw their unemployment benefit period end last year.
“The number of the unemployed fell because many were no longer registered as such since the unemployment benefits can be paid over the course of one year at the most. In addition, not many redundancies were operated in December, but the unemployment rate is sure to rise, because 10,000-15,000 new redundancies have been announced. The data should not be looked at very optimistically,” believes Mariana C=mpeanu, former labour minister and member of the committee for labour of the Chamber of Deputies.