Romania

Over the past 12 months, we have observed salary increases, for blue-collar workers, of 5% in the production sector and 7% in the logistics sector. For white-collar workers, there has been an increase in the production sector of up to 4% and in logistics by 5%.

The most sought after positions in the production sector are basic manual workers (unskilled/ skilled operators on production lines), skilled bluecollars: forklift drivers, CNC operators, electricians, mechanics and shift leaders. In the logistics sector, the most sought after blue-collar positions are warehouse operators (pickers), forklift drivers, shift leaders and warehouse managers for whitecollar roles.

The logistics sectors for goods has not been greatly impacted overall by the COVID-19 situation even though we can see a small slow down. The production sector however was affected differently based on type of production (automotive vs electronics production for example). In general, skilled candidates with a technical background are in demand and very few of them are available on the market. The logistics and production sectors are switching their status in terms of availability from being candidate markets, to an employer driven market. The pool of candidates has increased due to the reduction in the cross-border opportunities and also collective redundancies.

The regions with the highest level of employee availability for production and logistics are in the South: Bucharest, Ploiesti, Pitesti, Mioveni and South-East: Craiova, West: Timis, Arad, Oradea and for logistics: South-East-Constanta. The lowest levels of availability are in the Centre: Vilcea, Sibiu, South: Giurgiu, Teleorman, Ialomita; South-West: Caras Severin, North: Maramures, Salaja, Bistrita and Baia Mare.

The forecast for the unemployment rate which currently stands at 6.5% is to decrease in 2021 to ca. 5.4%. The cross-border working population is one factor driving the higher unemployment rate and contributions also decreased by 50% compared to 2019.

The general pandemic impact on employment has been felt in the number of closed contracts than those suspended by mid-May; in numbers this represents 430,000 people unemployed and more than 1 million suspended employment contracts.

Payments in Romania