According to the National Statistics Institute (INS), in 2011 237,000 Romanians working part-time were willing to work more, being considered underemployed, HotNews.ro informs This category of persons represented 2.4 per cent of the active population, 2.6 per cent of the employed population and almost a quarter (24.8 per cent) of the total number of part-time workers. At EU-27 level, 3.6 per cent of the active population was underemployed in 2011. The highest shares of underemployed persons were registered in Ireland (6.3 per cent), UK (5.6 per cent) and Germany (4.7 per cent), while the lowest were registered in the Czech Republic (0.5 per cent), Belgium and Bulgaria (0.8 per cent). The unemployment rate is the most visible indicator used in the Employment Report to characterize a multitude of economic and social aspects. Taken by itself however, this indicator cannot describe the variety of situations generated by the deepening fragmentation and diversification of the labor market. Of the active population (11.516 million people), 487,000 persons aged 15-74 were willing but unable to find work, while another 7,000 were looking for work but were not able to start working. These two categories of inactive persons represent the additional potential workforce that stood at 494,000 in 2011, representing 5 per cent of the active population. At EU-27 level, the additional potential workforce represents 4.6 per cent of the active population, the share ranging from 1.4 per cent in the Czech Republic to 12.1 per cent in Italy.
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