The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which were reflected in the restriction of social and economic activities in the second quarter of 2020, are also visible in the movement of the Labour Force Survey indicators.
Although the second quarter is the period in which a growth in employment and a fall in unemployment is most often realised, this year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a reverse trend at the annual level.
Quarterly data show that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no expected significant increase in the number of unemployed persons. This was contributed by government aids to preserve jobs and easing of epidemiological measures since mid-May onwards.
According to the Labour Force Survey data, the number of persons in employment amounted to 1 668 thousand in the second quarter of 2020. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, the number of persons in employment decreased by 0.6%. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, the number of persons in employment increased by 1.2%.
In the second quarter of 2020, the number of unemployed persons amounted to 115 thousand, which was an increase of 5.9% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 7.1%.
In the second quarter of 2020, the number of inactive persons amounted to 1 730 thousand, which was a decrease of 0.3% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, the number of inactive persons decreased by 0.7%.
In the second quarter of 2020, the employment rate amounted to 47.5%, which was a decrease of 0.2 percentage points compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, the employment rate increased by 0.6 percentage points.
In the second quarter of 2020, the ILO unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and over amounted to 6.4%, which was an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, the ILO unemployment rate decreased by 0.6 percentage points.
In the second quarter of 2020, the activity rate for persons aged 15 years and over amounted to 50.8%, which was an increase of 0.1 percentage points compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Compared to the first quarter of 2020, the activity rate increased by 0.4 percentage points.
In the Labour Force Survey, persons in employment who were absent from the main job in the reference week answered the question about the reasons for absence. If there were several reasons for absence, among the reasons offered, they had to choose one reason that they considered the most important.
In the second quarter of 2020, a total of 248 thousand persons in employment were temporarily absent from work, which accounted for 14.9% of the total number of persons in employment, while in the same quarter of the previous year, the share of persons who were temporarily absent from work was 7.7 %.
Regarding the reasons for absence from work, 31.6% of persons answered that they did not work due to technical or economic reasons. These were followed by the following reasons: absence due to annual leave (18.3%), other reasons (14.4%), illness or injury (12.7%), persons temporarily on lay-off (11.6%) and persons absent due to the use of maternity or parental leave (11.4%). The remaining reasons, such as unfavourable weather conditions, education or training, strike, labour dispute or exclusion from work and compensation of working hours are grouped and presented together with other reasons, because, according to the publishing rules for such data, there is no occurrence, or the data is not zero, but it is not published because of extremely inaccurate estimation.
In the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same quarter of the previous year, there was an increase in the number of persons temporarily absent from work due to technical or economic reasons, persons temporarily on lay-off and persons absent for other reasons, due to the impact of active measures to mitigate job losses, which led to an increase in temporary absences from work, rather than in dismissals.
