Romania has the highest share of public sector workers in the EU and is hiring more

Romania has over 1.2 million public servants, far above the EU average, and it is preparing to hire more in the first part of the next year.

Five months ago, the Romanian government announced that it will be freezing new hires to cut back on expenses. Nevertheless, many public institutions were allowed to make new hires as an exception.

There were over 1.25 million state employees as of September 2022, their salaries weighing heavy on the state budget. The state’s expenses with the wages of public sector workers increased by more than 60% in the last five years, from RON 70 billion (EUR 14.26 billion) in 2017 to RON 112 billion (EUR 22.8 billion). Romania spent over RON 97 billion (EUR 19.7 billion) paying public sector workers in the first 10 months of 2022.

“If we look, for example, at the share of state budget revenues [spent on wages], we are in first place in the European Union, allocating 37% to pay public sector workers, compared to 16% in Germany or 23%, which is the EU average,” tax analyst Adrian Codirlașu told Digi24.

He also added that digitalization could help reduce the number of workers and improve the quality of services.

“It will lead to a gradual decrease in the number of employees in the public system. The government does not need to fire them, but only to stop hiring more, and instead begin the digitalization of the system,” Codirlașu said.

(Photo source: Elmar Gubisch | Dreamstime.com)