Engineer shortage ongoing in Romania despite high wages

Romania needs 600,000 engineers over the next 10 years and is having trouble finding them despite wages of up to EUR 3,000 for those with a few years of experience.

The number of engineering graduates is 35% lower than what the market would need, analysts cited by Digi24 say.

Around 8,000 engineering students graduate every year, but many choose to go abroad after finishing their studies.

“More than 200,000 engineers left Romania after 1989,” said Mihnea Costoiu, rector of the Politehnica University of Bucharest. “We are facing a major shortage in the workforce. We’ve been in permanent contact for years with numerous companies and, recently, public institutions that are in desperate need of engineers for the coming period,” he added.

“The future is in need of engineers and it is competing over them,” said Cristian Doicin, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Robotics. “You cannot have good engineers, capable of designing highly efficient algorithms, if they're not familiar with mathematics and physics, fields that are considered tough to digest.” The dean is hopeful that new teaching methods will encourage students to pursue engineering.

In Romania, an entry-level engineer can earn around EUR 800 net per month. Salaries can reach between EUR 2,000-3,000 for those with a few years of experience.

Employers say that while salaries in Romania are still low relative to those in Western Europe, they are steadily catching up. In Germany, the average salary for someone in engineering is around EUR 3,220, while the highest wages go up to EUR 6,800.

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