Study: Higher pay, the top reason why Romanians change jobs

A new study conducted by D&D Research at the request of BestJobs revealed that higher pay is the primary motivator for Romanians when it comes to changing jobs. Six out of ten respondents indicated this criterion as the main reason for a career switch.

Over 80% of respondents are constantly looking for new opportunities on online recruitment platforms, with BestJobs being among the most popular (73% of white collar employees said that BestJobs is the platform they check the most and the first online site they would use when thinking of changing their job).

When it comes to employee mobility in the labour market, the reasons vary depending on the level of specialization. Thus, salary is the main motivator for the white and blue collar categories, followed by a difficult relationship with colleagues or superiors. Meanwhile, employees in the gold collar category choose to make a change in their professional career when there are differences between their vision and personal values and those of the company, but also when they feel the need for professional growth and the company cannot offer them new challenges.

“We notice some differences of opinion between the categories of employees, depending on their level of specialization - blue collar, white collar or gold collar - but most Romanians indicate the salary as the main criterion for changing jobs, and most of them would like to know the salary at the earliest stage of the recruitment process,” said Dan Petre, Business Developer D&D Research.

When checking job search websites, Romanians mainly look at the number of jobs available in their city of residence (64.5%), the number of jobs in the field of interest (61.8%), at the ads’ clarity and details (60%) and the number of jobs available for their level of training (59.5%).

According to the same study, participants noticed that the pandemic brought significant changes to the labour market, the most important of which was the opportunity to work from anywhere, which frees people from the worry of commuting and the need to find a job near home. At the same time, also as an effect of the pandemic, 43.9% of respondents noticed that the level of work increased while the salary remained the same.

The job offer is seen as being varied enough, especially by employees in the white and gold collar categories. They also consider that there is a good match between the employment criteria and their specializations. On the opposite end, the blue collar candidates feel that the employers’ requirements are difficult to meet.

The study also said that it’s rather difficult for young people, especially graduates with higher education, to find jobs that match their studies or salary expectations, despite the many offers available.