Romania's potential additional workforce 227,500-strong in 2021, down 9.5 pct from 2020

  - In 2021 the share of underemployed persons1 in the total economically active population was 1.4%, with 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous year2 - Potential additional labour force3 comprised a number of 227.5 thousand persons, decreasing with 9.5% as compared to the previous year - In 2021, the number of ILO unemployed was 459.2 thousand persons   Romania's potential additional workforce was 227,500 strong in 2021, down 9.5 percent from the previous year, shows data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS).The share of underemployed people in the total active population was 1.4 percent in 2021, 0.2 percentage points higher than in the previous year, and there were 459,200 ILO unemployed.According to the INS, there are three types of 3 indicators for the various categories of employed or inactive population with certain similarities with the unemployed population and the various degrees of labor market attachment (compared to the standard situation of the category they belong to), specifically: underemployed; inactive people who are looking for a job but are not available to start working; inactive people who are not looking for a job but are available to start working.Together, the last two indicators ("inactive people looking for a job but not available to start work" and "inactive people not looking for a job but available to start work") make up the "potential additional workforce". The set of three indicators constitutes "areas" of differentiation and overlap between the employed and the unemployed population, on the one hand, and the unemployed and the inactive population, on the other hand.Of the inactive population aged 15 - 74 (6.355 million), 227,500 people were part of the potential additional workforce (down 24,000 from the previous year). Of these, 215,200 people were available to start work but were not looking for a job. In 2021, the percentage ratio between this category of persons and the active population was 2.6 percent. 12,300 people were looking for a job but were not available to start work.The INS reports that in 2021, 117,400 part-time workers wanted and were available to work more hours, being considered underemployed. This category accounted for 1.4 percent of the active population, 1.5 percent of the employed population and 39.7 percent of the total number of persons working part-time. Compared to the previous year, the number of underemployed persons increased by 15,700.According to the release, underemployed are employed people who work part-time and who want and are available to work more hours than at present. The potential additional workforce is the sum of two categories: "inactive people looking for a job but not available to start work" and "inactive people not looking for a job but available to start work".