Fall in the Romanian labour market

Romania has lost 50 billion euros in the past few years due to the 2 million people that have migrated to work abroad.

The General Manager of the National Institute of Economic Research, Constantin Ciutacu, made this estimation the day after the World Bank had published a report according to which so far Romania has lost 2 700 000 active-working people.

During a debate on the labour market reform included in the Europe 2020 Strategy Constantin Ciutacu stated that the official authorities in Bucharest should no longer use cheaper labour force to attract foreign investors into Romania, taking into account that small salaries translate into lack of professionalism.

Furthermore, the expert claims that the labour market should not undergo reforms during the financial crisis because you cannot introduce reforms in a declining market.

And changing the salary law under difficult economic conditions will affect the performance level in the labour market.

Small salaries made Romanian people leave the country

Constantin Ciutacu demonstrated that the small salaries and the malfunctions in the social protection system were the reasons many Romanians left the country.

"The unemployment benefit in Belgium, for instance, is 1,300 euros per month, and people can receive unemployment benefits for 5 years. In Romania, the average unemployment benefit is 50 euros. Let’s analyze the performance. Dar eu cred că de fapt vrea să zică And nowadays we seek performance.

So, the Belgian unemployed people are more performing because they earn 1,300 euros for doing nothing unlike the Romanian people who are believed to lack performance. Therefore, I don’t know what the level of performance should be when doing nothing,’ Constantin Ciutacu stated.

These data serve as warnings that add to the problems identified on the labour market.

In the current financial meltdown, a recent report compiled by the United Nations indicates that the economic recovery will not reduce the unemployment rate, and young people will be one of the categories most affected by unemployment.

In Romania things are even more complicated, taking into account that the unbalance between the offer in the educational system and the demands on the labour market is far from being solved.

Moreover, according to the report published today by the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, young people complain about not having coherent information on the available jobs, and the employers claim that, sometimes, the young people’s demands are unjustified.

Young people complain about not being helped by the state institutions to find jobs and claim that nowadays, if you are not well-connected you cannot get a job.

As follows from the study, young people have unreasonable demands, as they embark on their first job experience demanding the work company not only to pay them a handsome salary, but to also give them a mobile phone and even a car.

Few young people register with territorial employment agency

On the other hand, representatives of the National Agency for Employment (NAE) claim that young people are no longer interested in the current jobs and do not register with a database.

The NAE executive director, Adriana Iorga, claims that few young people register with territorial employment agencies.

"At the last employment auction in September, we, as a municipal agency, identified over 3500 jobs, from unskilled worker jobs to physician and architect jobs. But only 2800 young people participated in this auction.

I don’t know how interested they were in applying for these jobs. They don’t register with territorial employment agencies. In Bucharest, only 1800 graduates registered with the municipal agency,’ Adriana Iorga stated.

One solution for the integration of young people on the labour market would be for them to be able to do internships in school.

However, the General Secretary of the Businessmen’s Association of Romania, Cristian Pârvan, stated that companies cannot afford such a solution for the time being.

"There are 800 000 companies nowadays, of which 99 percent are small and medium-sized companies, of which 92 percent have less than 10 employees. How could these companies accept people for internship positions?

"Who is going to supervise them? We want to increase young people’s possibilities, and I refer strictly to young people because they are the society’s main focus and the rest of the people are shaped by life experience and burdened by life's difficulties and learn that they don’t have a choice and make a living from less pleasant activities", Cristian Pârvan stated.

As far as the enforcement of the laws covering young people’s problems at local level is concerned, 20 councils of those included in the study did not take any resolution regarding the social integration of young people.

Translated by Raluca Mizdrea and Gabriela Lungu
MA Students, MTTLC, Bucharest University