However, the National Statistics Institute (INS) counted only
58,800 layoffs in the public sector between December 2008 and March
2011.
While the Finance Ministry says about 11,000 employees were made
redundant per month since the current government started reforms,
the Statistics Institute registered less than 5,000 layoffs per
month.
How can the gap be accounted for? The calculation methods used
by the two institutions differ.
“We collect information from all public institutions each month.
There were 1,398,757 public workers registered at the end of
December 2008 and the latest data show the number dropped to
1,245,980 people in late April,” said Gheorghe Gherghina, secretary
of state with the Finance Ministry.
“Government representatives use our statistical data when they refer to the number of public sector layoffs,” he added.
In the case of the National Statistics Institute, the number of public workers does not include the 260,000 employees in “special” systems -public security and defense, the secret services of the Interior and Defense ministries.
At the same time, the number of education and healthcare employees includes private sector employees in the two industries. However, the statistics institute is the institution that provides data to Eurostat, the organization that centralizes statistics data from EU members.
In August last year, the government pledged in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to lay off 74,000 public sector workers by late 2010, after having already operated 27,000 layoffs since the start of the year. Also, another 15,000 public workers were due to be made redundant in 2011.
Taking into account Finance Ministry data, the government overshot its target (of 116,000 layoffs). However, the statistics institute data shows the government is only halfway through achieving its target.