Labor Day. Factories in Romania have lost almost 500,000 employees in the last 25 years

Factories in Romania have lost almost 500,000 employees in the last 25 years, according to ZF calculations based on data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS). Thus, currently, 1.09 million people work in the manufacturing industry, while in 2000 their number was 1.56 million.

In Romania, several factors influence the stability of the manufacturing industry. First, supply chain disruptions, which peaked during the pandemic, are still affecting the industry. Thus, when the producers cannot provide the raw materials they need, the working hours of the employees can be reduced.

Wages paid by companies in the industry have increased in recent years, but are still below the average for the economy. The average net salary in the manufacturing industry reached 4,325 lei in February 2024, up 11% compared to the same month last year. By comparison, the average net salary in the economy reached almost 4,900 lei in the second month of this year, increasing by a little over 14% from year to year.

One of the factors that led to the increase in the salaries of factory employees is the lack of labor that companies in this sector face. The labor shortage problem in the manufacturing industry is one that employers in the local market have been dealing with for many years, so the lack of skilled workers has been an ongoing challenge for the industry for years.

Data from the National Institute of Statistics show that, in the last quarter of 2023, the most vacant jobs in the local economy were in the manufacturing industry, over 7,800. “The manufacturing industry emphasizes the human, in the sense that its specific operations cannot be replaced by robots in a large percentage. They need qualified personnel in certain trades, who can operate the machines and adapt to the working environment. Unfortunately, the lack of an educational framework in which young people can learn a trade and have a qualification in this sense is an additional reason why the manufacturing industry has the most vacant jobs”, Cătălin Ciupag, branch manager, previously told ZF within the temporary recruitment company Prohuman Romania.

Sorina Faier, managing partner of the recruitment company Elite Searchers, claims that the workforce problem in the manufacturing industry in Romania is quite complex and has several causes. First, she says that part of this labor shortage can be attributed to labor migration to other countries, where working conditions or wages are more attractive.

“Secondly, there is a lack of adaptation of education and professional training to the real requirements of the labor market, which leads to a lack of qualified employees in this industry. Also, another factor that contributes to this problem is the rapid technological change in the manufacturing industry, which requires new skills and qualifications, which many employees do not have”, she previously told ZF.

The manufacturing industry in Romania is almost synonymous with automotive. The 20 largest companies in the manufacturing industry had a cumulative turnover of almost 145 billion lei in 2022, up 28% compared to the previous year, pressing the accelerator once again after a 2021 that brought a slowdown due to the crisis of raw materials, shows a ZF analysis based on data from the Trade Register.