Moldova's unemployment rate rose to 4.9% in the fourth quarter of last year from 4.6% in the same period of 2022, the statistical office said on Tuesday.
There were 45,000 registered unemployed individuals in the country of 2.5 million people at the end of December 2023, compared to 41,200 a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, said in a statement.
The jobless rate was 11.3% among people aged between 15 and 24 in the fourth quarter of 2023, down from 13.2% a year earlier, and 4.8% among people aged between 20 and 64, up from 4.5% in the October-December period of 2022.
People in active age increased by an annual 1.8% to 919,600 in the fourth quarter. The number of employed grew by 1.4% on the year to 874,700 in the last quarter of 2023.
In the review period, the unemployment rate for both men and women was 4.9%.
The statistics bureau also said the jobless rate reached 5.4% in rural areas, compared to 4.4% in urban areas.
In the third quarter of 2023, Moldova's unemployment rate stood at 4.1%.
In 2022, Moldova’s unemployment rate inched down to 3.1% from 3.2% a year earlier.