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Belstat has published the results of a sample household survey on employment issues for the third quarter of 2026. The survey is used to calculate the unemployment rate according to the methodology of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
In the third quarter, the employment rate among people aged 15–74 in Belarus stood at 69.1%, up 0.1 percentage points from the second quarter. The unemployment rate was 1.9% of the labor force, down 0.2 percentage points.
The ILO-based unemployment rate fell to a new record low. For comparison, it stood at 2.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and averaged 2.5% over the year as a whole. A year earlier, in the third quarter of 2025, the rate was 2.4%.
The unemployment rate among women was 1.6%, down 0.2 percentage points from the second quarter, while the rate among men was 2.2%, also down 0.2 percentage points.
In urban areas, the unemployment rate was 1.9%, down 0.2 percentage points, while in rural areas it was 2.1%, up 0.2 percentage points.
The employment rate among the working-age population was 85.3%, unchanged from the previous quarter. The rate was 86% among women, up 0.3 percentage points, and 84.7% among men, down 0.1 percentage points. In rural areas, it stood at 84.9%, down 0.1 percentage points, while in cities it was 85.4%, up 0.1 percentage points.
A total of 64.2% of respondents looked for work online or through the media, while 53.6% sought help from relatives and friends. Another 13.2% contacted employment services or used the national job vacancy database, and 18.1% approached employers directly.