Employment Figures Among the Romani Population Show Mixed Results

Significant progress has been made in recent years in the employment of the Roma population, reported the economy news portal Világgazdaság. The employment rate of the Roma, compared to the participation rate of the rest of society, is a good indicator of the degree of integration of the most populous ethnic group.

The Central Statistical Office notes that for the purposes of the analysis, Roma are defined as those who declared themselves as Roma at the time of the labor force survey. The Roma population – around four-fifths of whom have at most primary education, compared to less than one-fifth of non-Roma – is less represented in the labor market than average.

In addition to the educational composition, the spatial distribution of the Roma population also contributes to the low employment rate.

In the period under review (2014-2021), the labor market situation of Roma has evolved in parallel with that of the non-Roma population: there has been a strong improvement since 2014, which was interrupted by the epidemic.

The unemployment rate for Roma fell from 30.1 per cent in 2014 to 16.7 per cent in 2019, but has started to increase again in the last two years, reaching close to 20 per cent in 2021. The analysis shows that the gap between male and female employment rates among those who identify themselves as Roma is significantly larger than for the rest of the population. Female employment is also constrained by the higher number of children than in non-Roma families.

The data show that 57.8 per cent of Roma men aged 15-64 were employed in 2021, compared to 34.3 per cent of women.

Although the latter rate is almost nine percentage points higher than in 2014, the employment of Roma women has fallen by four percentage points over the past two years.

Very few Roma young people continue to obtain vocational qualifications. More than sixty per cent of young Roma aged 18-24 were early school leavers in 2021, which explains why their share of neither studying nor working is more than four times higher than that of non-Roma. A significant and barely diminishing difference between Roma and non-Roma is the high share of the former in jobs with lower employment security (and earnings).

Improvements in employment and a decline in unemployment have resulted in the share of Roma aged 18-59 living in an unemployed household falling by 15 percentage points between 2014 and 2021, but still approaching 20 per cent, while the share of non-Roma is below five per cent.

A significant proportion of Roma live in areas of the country with a poor labor market situation and/or in municipalities with poor transport links, where not only are local job opportunities scarce, but there is also no meaningful job supply within commuting distance.

Via VG.hu, Featured Photo: Pixabay