RO Govt. evaluates excess public employment at 150,000

Romania’s labour minister Violeta Alexandru confirmed, in an interview with Digi24 TV on January 7, that the number of excess workforce “in administration”, a broad term used to include more than strictly the “public administration” but rather the employees paid from the general (consolidated) government budget, is around 150,000.

This accounts for 3.1% of the country’s employees and their overnight dismissal would push up the unemployment rate by some 1.5 percentage points.

Minister Alexandru said that, after thorough evaluations, “there will be some [personnel] reductions.” In the three main budgetary sectors, namely public administration, education and healthcare (social services included) there were 964,000 employees at the end of October 2019, up 1.4% year-on-year.

Deputy prime Minister Raluca Turcan toned down the labour minister’s statements, saying one day later that “those who work in an efficient and professional manner, have no reason to worry”.

There is currently an appraisal running by the public administration institutions with the purpose of evaluating the size of the needed personnel, both confirmed.

(Photo: Violeta Alexandru Facebook Page)