Unemployment rose in August to 260,919 people, the majority aged over 55

The registered unemployment rate at national level reached 3.26% at the end of August 2026, up by 0.01 percentage points compared to the previous month, according to data published on Friday by the National Agency for Employment (ANOFM). The agency's records showed 260,919 registered persons, an increase of 1,030 compared to July.

Of these, only 61,718 persons were receiving unemployment benefits, up by 3,960 compared to the previous month. Conversely, the number of those not receiving benefits fell by 2,930, reaching 199,201 persons. In practice, more than three quarters of those registered with ANOFM were not entitled to unemployment benefits.

People aged over 55 most affected

The largest age group among the unemployed was that of people aged over 55, with 65,981 registered cases. In second place were people aged between 40 and 49, with 61,052 unemployed persons. At the opposite end of the scale, the 25–29 age group recorded the fewest unemployed – 14,675 persons.

Other relevant data

• Of the total, 188,421 unemployed persons came from rural areas and 72,498 from urban areas – meaning over 72% of registered persons were from villages.
• The number of unemployed men stood at 133,409, slightly above that of women, at 127,510.
• In terms of educational attainment, persons with no education or only primary education accounted for 28.48% of the total, whilst those with lower secondary education had a share of 33.17%. Together, these two categories make up nearly 62% of all registered unemployed persons.
• At the opposite end of the scale, persons with university-level education accounted for just 5.09% of the total unemployed, according to ANOFM data.