Romania’s employment rate has been on a downward spiral in the last ten years and is currently way behind the EU’s target for 2020. Women, young people and the over-45s are particularly struggling to find work in the country.

The global economic crisis has seriously affected the EU labour market, leaving over 23 million people – more than the total population of Romania – unemployed and with little hope of finding a new job in the coming months.

In the last year and a half alone, 4.3 million jobs have been lost – constituting 1.9% of the total workforce in the EU. For the whole recession period, 7.5 million jobs are estimated to have been lost.

At the end of 2009, the employment rate in Romania stood at just 58.6% – a long way away from EU-wide target of 75% by the year 2020. The Romanian employment market has lost more than two million people in the past few years, mostly young ones, who now form big communities particularly in Spain and Italy. An elite diaspora is slowly taking shape as well, especially in Brussels, where better paid jobs attracted thousands of Romanians to work for the EU institutions or the private sector.

The government’s employment policies will have to consider people’s qualifications, he added, with many young people struggling to find work because schools do not offer labour market-oriented training.

However, Cristian Ghinea, an analyst at the Romanian Centre for European Policies, points out that the country’s low employment figure does not take into account Romanians working in subsistence farming – those who focus on growing enough food to feed their families.

“The employment rate does not include people working in subsistence agriculture. We have 30% of the population working in agriculture, double the proportion of the next [member state] on the list, Poland,” stated Ghinea at a recent conference.

According to recent media reports, foreign companies are among the few in Romania that have taken people on since the onset of the crisis. Working almost exclusively for foreign clients, multinationals are now recruiting actively – with the automobile industry leading the recruitment wave.

Read the article on www.reportereconomic.ro

Romania struggling to improve job situation

Romania’s employment rate has been on a downward spiral in the last ten years and is currently way behind the EU’s target for 2020. Women, young people and the over-45s are particularly struggling to find work in the country.

The global economic crisis has seriously affected the EU labour market, leaving over 23 million people – more than the total population of Romania – unemployed and with little hope of finding a new job in the coming months.

In the last year and a half alone, 4.3 million jobs have been lost – constituting 1.9% of the total workforce in the EU. For the whole recession period, 7.5 million jobs are estimated to have been lost.

At the end of 2009, the employment rate in Romania stood at just 58.6% – a long way away from EU-wide target of 75% by the year 2020. The Romanian employment market has lost more than two million people in the past few years, mostly young ones, who now form big communities particularly in Spain and Italy. An elite diaspora is slowly taking shape as well, especially in Brussels, where better paid jobs attracted thousands of Romanians to work for the EU institutions or the private sector.

The government’s employment policies will have to consider people’s qualifications, he added, with many young people struggling to find work because schools do not offer labour market-oriented training.

However, Cristian Ghinea, an analyst at the Romanian Centre for European Policies, points out that the country’s low employment figure does not take into account Romanians working in subsistence farming – those who focus on growing enough food to feed their families.

“The employment rate does not include people working in subsistence agriculture. We have 30% of the population working in agriculture, double the proportion of the next [member state] on the list, Poland,” stated Ghinea at a recent conference.

According to recent media reports, foreign companies are among the few in Romania that have taken people on since the onset of the crisis. Working almost exclusively for foreign clients, multinationals are now recruiting actively – with the automobile industry leading the recruitment wave.

Read the article on www.reportereconomic.ro

Postat de pe data de 12 oct., 2010 in categoria România în lume. Poti urmari comentariile acestui articol prin RSS 2.0. Acest articol a fost vizualizat de 622 ori.

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