The fourth-quarter research reveals that 74% of the 625 Romanian employers surveyed report that they do not plan to either increase or decrease total employment at their location between October and December 2013. Also, 12% of respondents anticipate a growth in payrolls, while another 12% anticipate a decrease in payrolls in the same interval, according to the survey.
Once seasonal variations are removed from the data, Romania’s Net Employment Outlook stands at a flat 0%. This is the weakest Outlook figure reported since the fourth quarter of 2010, and represents a decline of 10 percentage points over the previous quarter, and 12 percentage points when compared to the same quarter of 2012, the survey shows.
In Romania, the 4Q/2013 survey was conducted between July 18 and 31 on a representative sample of 625 employers.
“We are observing a conservative approach to hiring, characteristic of uncertainty among employers regarding the economic climate. On the one hand, the figures indicate that job seekers in certain areas and industries may encounter some difficulties in finding employment, but despite the relative weakness of this coming quarter’s reported hiring plans, the fact that nearly three quarters of employers intend to keep the size of their workforce constant may indicate that the labor market has reached a level of stability,” says Valentin Petrof, Country Manager, Manpower Group Romania.
This is, in fact, the largest percentage of employers who report no change in their hiring plans in the history of the Romanian Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
Despite an overall modest national Outlook, staffing levels are expected to grow in six of the 10 industry sectors surveyed, and in five of the eight regions. The strongest hiring plans are reported by employers in the manufacturing sector, with a Net Employment Outlook of +12%, while the weakest market is forecast in construction, where employers report a Net Employment Outlook of -15%, the survey showss.
However, hiring intentions are weaker than in the previous quarter in eight sectors, and all 10 have a lower Net Employment Outlook in the fourth quarter of 2013 than in the same period in 2012. The steepest year-over-year decline of the Outlook is reported in the construction and wholesale and retail sectors where Outlooks decline by 27 and 19 percentage points, respectively.
Globally, the survey data indicates that the fourth-quarter hiring pace is expected to be slow but mostly steady. Employers in 29 of the 42 countries surveyed expect their workforces to grow, but the global hiring momentum does not appear set to improve notably.
The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers’ intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforces during the next quarter. The quarterly survey is the world’s most extensive, forward-looking insight into employers’ hiring plans.