Bulgaria, Greece, Poland and Romania have highest share of population employed in agriculture

In agriculture, forestry and fisheries, among the states of east and south of the European Union, 27 different regions reported in 2016 a percentage of employees at least three times higher than the EU average of 4.5 percent, including five out of six regions in Bulgaria, eight out of 13 regions in Greece, six regions in Poland and five out of eight regions in Romania, show the data published on Tuesday by the Eurostat. 

In 2016, there were 232 million people employed in the European Union in the following six economic sectors: agriculture, forestry and fishing (10.4 million people employed; 4.5 percent of the total EU); industry (35.6 million; 15.3 percent); construction (14.7 million; 6.3 percent); retail and wholesale, food and accommodation services, communications and information (64.4 million; 27.7 percent), financial and insurance services, real estate, scientific and technical, administrative and support services (38.1 million ; 16.4 percent); and public administration - defence; social assistance; education; health - and other activities: art, entertainment and leisure (69.1 million; 29.7 percent). 

In industry, Romania's West development area had a share of employed population in this sector of almost three times higher than the EU average of 15.3 percent.