Unemployment rates, according to the International Labour Office was 6.8% in the third quarter of 2009, marking an increase compared to the previous quarter (6.3%) and to the third quarter 2008 (5.4%), a press release of the Romanian National Statistics Institute reads.

The International Labour Office refers to unemployed all people aged 15 to 74 who do not have a job and are available to start working in the next two weeks and were actively seeking a job in the last four weeks.

In the third quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate was higher than the previous quarters. In the third quarter last year, Romania's active population was 10.226 million persons of which 9.527 million persons were occupied and 699.000 unemployed.