Nearly 350,000 Romanians lose their jobs amid COVID-19 lockdown

The number of employment contracts terminated in Romania since the state of emergency came in force on March 16 reached nearly 350,000 on May 13, according to data from the Labor Inspectorate reporting to the ministry of labor, quoted by Agerpres.

Notably, the ILO unemployment data was indicating that another 350,000 Romanians were actively seeking a job at the end of February.

On top of those, some 350,000 Romanians have returned from abroad are expected to look for employment at home, according to the Government’s estimates voiced by prime minister Ludovic Orban.

Thus, over one million Romanians could be looking for jobs in the following period. Romania had about 5 million employees before the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the 349,705 labor contracts terminated in the last two months, 62,620 are from the sector of services to households, 61,330 are from manufacturing, and 50,713 are in the construction sector.

Separately, the number of employment contracts declared as suspended reached 891,091 on May 12, having declined for the second consecutive day - to reflect the workers returning to their factories.

Of the 0.9 mln people in technical unemployment, 260,338 are from manufacturing, 157,746 from services to households, and 112,952 from hotels and restaurants.

(Photo: Pixabay)