Statistics Institute: Despite sharp economic growth, number of job vacancies in Romania up only slightly in 2017

Data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) shows that there were more job vacancies in Romania in 2017 than in the previous year.

In 2017, the average annual job vacancy rate was 1.24 percent, slightly decreasing (by 0.04 percent) from 2016. The average annual number of job vacancies was 60,000, only 200 more than in 2016, which confirms the idea that Romania is not experiencing a “workforce crisis” like other countries in the EU, but rather that it has issues related to the quality of the available jobs.

By economic activity, the highest average annual job vacancy rates in 2017 were seen for public administration, human health and social work activities, other service activities and arts, entertainment and recreation.

Manufacturing had over a quarter of the total number of job vacancies (15,800), with an average annual rate of 1.33 percent.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the lowest values for both the rate and the average annual number of job vacancies were in mining and quarrying.

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The budgetary sector summed up over one third of the total number of job vacancies, with the highest in human health and social work activities, public administration and education.

By major occupational groups, the highest demand for paid labour force expressed by employers for both annual job vacancy rate and average annual number of job vacancies was for professionals (17,500 vacancies).

On the other hand, the lowest demand was for skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers, as well as for managers.

In terms of territorial profile, in 2017,, the highest values for the average annual job vacancy rate were in the West region and in the Bucharest-Ilfov region. Regarding the average annual number of job vacancies, employers had the most significant demand for paid labour force in Bucharest-Ilfov, which represented over 27 percent of all vacancies at the country level. The North-West and West regions totalled almost 30 percent of all vacancies.

In contrast, both the annual rate and the number of job vacancies were the lowest in South-West Oltenia and the South-East, which together summed up only 11 percent of all vacancies.