The Romanian economy is heading towards an acute crisis on the labor market, as the number of employees and the degree of skilled labor has decreased in the last years. This will continue in the future, according to a study concluded by KeysFin.

The number of vacant jobs, an indicator of the shortage of labor at national level, almost doubled from 38,625 in 2009 to 59,753 in 2016.

“Whether we are talking about IT programmers, engineers or finance specialists, there are more and more companies claiming that they don’t find qualified staff,” according to the KeysFin study.

The strongest demand for labor is in Bucharest, which has over 16,000 vacant jobs. The capital is followed by cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Brasov, Ploiesti, and Constanta, which are considered economic growth poles. The manufacturing industry had almost 15,800 vacant jobs last year, followed by the healthcare sector, with over 8,400 vacant jobs, and retail, with over 5,200 vacant jobs.

The highest demand for labor targets specialists (17,731), almost double compared to 2009. However, it remains well below the record level of 2007, when there were 22,295 vacant jobs for specialized personnel.

editor@romania-insider.com