Salary trends
The average net salary reached 5,266 lei (around €1,000), an increase of 6.2% compared with 2024.
Sorin Iordan, 01.10.2026, 14:00
The average gross monthly salary across Romania’s economy in 2025 was 8,716 lei (around €1,653), up 8.1% from the previous year, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. The average net salary reached 5,266 lei (around €1,000), an increase of 6.2% compared with 2024. The highest average net monthly salaries compared with the national average were recorded in telecommunications, programming, IT consultancy, and radio and television broadcasting. At the other end of the scale, the lowest average net monthly salaries compared with the national average were recorded in sectors including hotels and restaurants, agriculture, forestry and fishing, as well as entertainment, cultural, sports and recreational activities. Bucharest recorded the highest average net salary, at 7,150 lei (around €1,350), while the lowest was recorded in Botoşani County in north-eastern Romania, at 4,059 lei (nearly €770).
National Institute of Statistics data also show that the average number of employees increased by 73,000 in 2025, reaching more than 5.5 million. Employees in Romania’s energy sector, covering electricity, natural gas, oil, energy mining and related services, have launched an independent trade union called the Energy Workers’ Alliance, based in Braşov, central Romania. The organisation represents workers in production, transmission, distribution and supply, design and engineering, construction and installation, maintenance, dispatching, SCADA and IT, cyber security, metering and billing, logistics, infrastructure protection, environmental services, technical consultancy and vocational training.
The priorities announced by the Energy Workers’ Alliance include protecting individual workers during restructuring, redundancies, disciplinary investigations and labour disputes; tackling unfair treatment and abuse in employment relations; maintaining professional social dialogue with employers and the relevant institutions; preparing workers for changes brought about by decarbonisation, digitization and automation; and collective bargaining on pay, allowances, working hours, occupational health and safety, vocational training and social protection. More information about the organisation is available on the website sindicat-ale.ro.
Around 21,000 foreign nationals currently live in Cluj County, north-western Romania, having moved there mainly for work or study, according to the Cluj Immigration Service. The data show that during the first eight months of this year, the authorities handled residence and residency matters for nearly 6,500 people. Of these, 5,800 were nationals of non-EU countries, while the remainder were citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area or Switzerland.
Among non-EU citizens, the largest number in 2026 came from Nepal, with more than 1,100 people, followed by Sri Lanka, with 735, India, with 385, and Turkey, with nearly 200. Among European citizens who established residence in the county during the period under review, the largest numbers came from France, with 269, Germany, with 102, Italy, with 87, and Spain, with 30.
The Cluj branch of the General Inspectorate for Immigration also says that around 4,670 residence permits were issued during the period, of which only 131 were for long-term residence. At the same time, 822 applications for employment permits were registered on the local labour market. The Reşiţa Hydroenergy Machinery Manufacturing Plant has announced 43 job vacancies. The positions are open to candidates with higher education, as well as people with vocational qualifications or professional training courses. The available jobs cover a range of areas, from engineering, design and maintenance to human resources, procurement, quality control and technical trades.
The vacancies include four positions for electromechanical design engineers, two section manager positions, two lathe operator positions, five electric rotating machine winding technician positions, four mechanical fitter positions, two welding engineer positions, as well as one position each for an economist, head of human resources and archives, corporate governance specialist and metrology technician. (EE)
