Employment continued to decline

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 02. 03. 10:56

In December, the monthly unemployment rate reported by the Central Statistical Office was 4.3%, which is below our expected 4.6% and the Bloomberg consensus. In November, we saw a rate of 4.5%. In December, the number of unemployed people barely changed over a year, while it decreased by over 11 thousand people compared to the previous month. At the same time, it is visible that the number of economically inactive people also increased by over 9 thousand people, so a significant proportion of the unemployed had already left the active labor market in the last month of the year and were not even looking for work. Thus, it can be said that overall, the improvement in unemployment is only visible in statistical terms.

The decline in employment continued in December: the number of employed persons among the working-age population aged 15-74 was 4 million 678.2 thousand in December, which represents a decrease of 800 persons on a monthly basis, while the decrease was 16 thousand persons on an annual basis. The number of economically active persons decreased significantly: by more than 19 thousand persons compared to a year ago, and by 12 thousand persons compared to a month ago, to 4 million 888 thousand.

In the three-month data, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 4.4%, which is the same as the value a year earlier. In the October–December 2024 period, the average number of employed persons aged 15–74 was 4 million 688.9 thousand, which is 24 thousand less than the previous year and a decrease of 2.4 thousand compared to the three-month figure a month ago. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 1.6 thousand in a year and decreased by about 15 thousand compared to the previous three-month figure. The activity rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point in a year and by 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous month.

According to the records of the National Employment Service, the number of registered job seekers at the end of December was 220.8 thousand, which is a decrease of 1.8 percentage points compared to the previous year. The figure also decreased by the same amount on a monthly basis.