Romania: Close to 500,000 Jobs Lost during Pandemic

Despite the optimism displayed by the Minister of Labor, the pandemic toll is rather high regarding the jobs lost. According to the latest numbers, Romania lost close to 500,000 jobs because of the economic crisis and during the emergency situation.

Most of the jobs lost are from the manufacturing industries, but not all of them. A good percentage of this loss belongs to the public sector, especially defense and social insurance.

Among the most affected industries during the pandemic lockdown, the hospitality sector, has lost lots of jobs and the future doesn’t look promising at all for the hotels and restaurants owners. Though, the economy started moving in a pace which offers some hope for all the entrepreneurs, if, and only if, the country doesn’t enter a second lockdown.

The “winner sectors” regarding the jobs created in pandemic are agriculture and the public and private school systems. Both have a desperate need of employees and it seems that the lockdown only increased the demand.

Anyway, these 500,000 jobs and the corresponding number of unemployed won’t do anything but increase the pressure on an already weakened budgetary system. If the state decides to hike the pensions with 40%, the level wanted by the Romanian MPs, then Romania would certainly meet the criteria for having its country ranking lowered by the international agencies as S&P warned last week.