Given its
\npopulation decline and the emigration of so many of its people since 1990, it
\nwas to be expected that Romania would face a workforce deficit at some point.
\nThe situation has gotten worse from one year to the next, so that Romania has had
\nno choice other than to import staff to occupy the vacancies. At the moment,
\nRomania has the second highest demand in the European Union for workers from
\noutside the European Union, after the Czech Republic. Most of the foreign
\nworkers employed in Romania in 2018 come from Vietnam, namely 35%, followed by
\nTurkey, Nepal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, China and the Republic of Moldova. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The workforce crisis
\nis being felt in particularly in such fields as the restaurant industry, the
\nconstruction of ships and floating structures, the clothing and footwear retail
\ntrade, as well as in the residential and non-residential building industry. Accidentally
\nor not, these are partly also the areas employing the Romanians who have now settled
\nin EU and non-EU countries for a number of years. That is one possible
\nexplanation for Romania’s workforce deficit, whose causes are also to be found
\nin the situation of the country’s education system, says the S&D Euro MP and
\nbusinesswoman Maria Grapini:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It must be said
\nthat the workforce crisis affects execution position, not positions that
\nrequire higher education. Unfortunately, we now see the results of closing
\nvocational schools a few years ago, although the dual education system has started
\nto function in the meantime. The law on in-work apprenticeship has also been
\npassed. But the demand for more workers is not yet met. My firms are active in
\nthe textile industry, which is confronted with a serious crisis when it comes
\nto skills that used to be acquired in vocational schools, such as weaving and
\ndyeing. Not to mention of occupations such as that of electrician, welder,
\nlathe operator, etc.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We are mainly importing
\nunskilled work, confirm the representatives of consultancy and human resources
\nfirms, such as Dana Ionescu, a global mobility manager with ADECCO, who says
\nthat importing foreign workers is not cheap: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It is in no way
\ncheaper to import foreign citizens instead of hiring citizens from Romania. There
\nare some salary-related restrictions for certain types of workers. While a
\nRomanian citizen can be hired for the minimum wage, a foreign citizen for whom
\na work permit is obtained must be offered the average wage. To this we add the
\ncost of the paperwork: the fee of the consultancy firm, the translation of
\ndocuments, notary fees as well as other taxes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Irrespective of
\nthe causes of the workforce crisis and its costs, Romanian employers need a growing
\nnumber of foreign workers and have called on the government to issue more work
\npermits. The human resources expert Dana Ionescu will give us more details: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Data centralised by the National Employment Agency
\nshow that out of the total number of vacancies reported in the first semester
\nof 2018 and made available to the people who are looking for a job and who are
\nregistered as beneficiaries of unemployment benefit, 31,464 jobs were repeatedly
\nreported as vacant by employers. Due to this deficit, there emerged the need to
\nincrease considerably, from one year to the next, the number of foreign workers
\nthat can be hired on Romania’s territory. This number is approved by a
\ngovernment order at the beginning of each year, and it is later modified during
\nthe year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This year, the number approved by the government
\naccording to types of workers newly admitted on the labour market has increased
\nby 55% as compared to the same period of 2017. Initially, the numbers for 2018
\nincluded 7,000 workers and, in August, the authorities decided to increase it
\nto a record number, according to Dana Ionescu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
For the permanent workers category the amount doubled
\nfrom 4,000 to 8,000, while the number of posted workers has grown more than
\nfour times. It remains to be seen if another increase will be needed by the end
\nof the year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Besides measures such as correlating training with the
\nmarket needs and applying the in-work apprenticeship law, the idea of
\nencouraging Romanians to return home has also been discussed. But, in this
\ncase, there emerge other obstacles, according to Euro MP Maria Grapini:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
People have lost confidence. When I visited Spain, I
\nmet the representatives of the Romanian community there. They told me they
\ndon’t trust the sustainability of the labour market. They have not raised the
\nissue of wages but the long-term sustainability of jobs. We need public
\npolicies focused on this very aspect.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Until then, importing workforce is the solution at
\nhand. Talks have been held on simplifying the legislation for bringing in workforce
\nfrom abroad. The authorities are also considering the elimination of a
\nprovision regarding the average salary, because, once the government has set the
\nminimum wage, it should be up to the market to decide the level of wages for
\nemployees depending on their training and expertise. It remains to be seen of
\nthese ideas will turn into laws. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania is faced with a workforce deficit, resulting in a demand for foreign workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":142834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[31513,116464],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-142833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-foreign-workers","tag-romania-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n