Almost 12 percent of employed people working in agriculture in 2023 

There were 7.697 million employed people in Romania in 2023, with 11.9% of them working in agriculture, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (NIS).Last year, the employed population was down by 110,000 compared to 2022. The working-age population (aged 15-64 years) accounted for 98.9% of the total number of employed people, with 55.2% in services, 33.4% in industry and construction, and 11.4% in agriculture, informs the INS.The distribution of the employed population by professional status shows that the share of employees (85.7%) was the highest in the total employed population. In 2023, self-employed and unpaid family workers accounted for 13% of the employed population and 82.4% of them lived in rural areas.In 2023, 60.8% of employees were in services, 35.9% in industry and construction and 3.3% in agriculture.Also last year, the number of employers amounted to 103,400, of whom 74.6% carried their activity in small enterprises with one to ten employees. Of all employers, 6.6% were in agriculture.The statistics show that the distribution of the employed population by occupational groups shows that, in 2023, higher shares in the total were recorded for skilled and related workers (17.7%), specialists in various fields of activity (17.6%) and employees in the service sector (17.3%).Men held the highest percentages in the group of skilled and related workers (81.2%), in the group of members of the legislature, the executive, senior officials in public administration and senior managers and civil servants (66.6%), in the group of skilled workers in agriculture, forestry and fishing (66.5%) and in the group of unskilled workers (62%).Of the persons who worked as skilled workers in agriculture, forestry and fishing, 30.3% belonged to the 45-54 age group and 27.2% were over 55 years old.Of the total employed population (7.697 million people) last year, 8.3% were skilled workers in agriculture, forestry and fishing. Of the total number of persons employed, 4.412 million were men, 9.7% of whom were skilled workers in agriculture, forestry and fishing, and 3.284 million were women, 6.5% of whom were working in the field analyzed. By area of residence, 0.8% were form the urban area and 18.1% form rural areas.In 2023, were underemployed 10% of the self-employed, 6.6% of unpaid family workers and only 0.1% of employees. More than half (52.9%) of the underemployed had a low level of education and another 45% had a medium level of education. The incidence of underemployment (the share of underemployed persons in the total employed population in the same category) was higher in activities of private households as employers of domestic personnel; activities of private households producing goods and services for own consumption (26.4%) and in agriculture, forestry and fishing (7.2%).The INS statistics also show that the number of people who had a secondary activity in addition to their main activity was 43,300, representing 0.6% of the employed population. Higher shares were recorded for people with secondary education (0.6%), as well as for those in rural areas (1.1% compared to only 0.2% in urban areas), where in 90.7% of cases the second activity was in the agricultural sector.