According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the labor force participation rate of the population aged 15 years and older decreased to 40.9%, which is 3.9 percentage points lower than the level of the first quarter of 2024 (44.8%). Among people aged 20-64, the participation rate decreased to 55.7% from 59.4% last year.
The number of employed people decreased to 772.7 thousand people, which is 9.8% less than in the first quarter of 2024. The employment rate of persons aged 15 years and over was 39.1% (a decrease of 3.8 percentage points), and in the age group 20-64 years this figure was 53.2% against 56.8% for the same period in 2024.
In the employment structure, 64.2% of employed people worked in the services sector, 13.1% in industry (10.5% in manufacturing) and 6.4% in construction, while agriculture provided jobs for 16.3% of the total. Most of the employed people (82%) were hired, and 13.7% worked in the informal sector.
The number of unemployed people, calculated using the ILO methodology, decreased to 35.2 thousand people compared to 39.7 thousand in the first quarter of 2024. At the same time, the unemployment rate remained at 4.4%. However, the rate among young people aged 15–24 remains high at 12.8%.
The number of people not in the labour force increased by 5.7% to 1.166 million. And the inactivity rate rose to 59.1% for the population aged 15 and over and to 44.3% for the 20–64 age group. This indicates a worrying phenomenon of people leaving the labour market, especially in rural areas and among women.
