“This shortage hits both the base and the top: it is worst for occupations with elementary skills, but also persists for IT&C, sciences, engineering and healthcare. As a paradox, the labor market is at the same time relatively tense (with labor shortage) and has significant reserves,” says Cristian Popa, CFA and member of Romania’s central bank Board.
The issues local companies are facing are due to a number of factors. On the one hand, population aging is becoming more visible on the labor market, and on the other, Romania has one of the highest rates of young people without a job, not enrolled in any type of education and not participating in professional training activities.
The proportion of older people has gone up to 20% in 2024 from 16% in 2013, the median age is now almost 44 years compared with 40.5 years in 2013 and total population is projected to decline by almost 10% by 2035.
At the same time, after two decades of net negative migration, the trend was reversed in Romania in 2022-2023.
“This does not mean that all Romanians came home or stopped leaving, but that the phenomenon has somewhat waned, some people are coming home. On average, more than 200,000 left in every of the last ten years. In 2023, however, some 324,000 people immigrated to Romania.”
The central bank analysis shows the number of immigrants increased especially because of workers coming from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and other non-EU countries (usually unskilled workers from developing countries or who left Ukraine), not because of EU people, while it is usually skilled workers who emigrate.
“Net positive migration is a useful market adjustment (it occurs when labor demand is high and wages and living conditions are attractive), but it could be even better. Ideally, we would be able to retain skilled workers, supporting productivity, but even as it is, net positive migration is preferable to net negative migration,” says the central bank representative.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)