Concordia Employers' Confederation, together with KPMG and National Institute for Economic Research (INCE) of the Romanian Academy, today launched the study "Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the labor market in Romania" as part of an effort to contribute to understanding the imminent and worrying changes in the labor market, which affect and will affect the whole economy and society.
Among the alarming findings of the study by KPMG specialists and INCE researchers:
- in 5 years the economy will need more than half a million extra people in the labor market who cannot be filled from domestic labor resources unless action is taken;
- Around 2 million people in the labor force are neither in the labor market nor in the education system;
- the number of pensioners is rapidly approaching that of active workers;
- population could fall by almost 2 million by 2030
"At the level of Concordia's member employers' federations, we are deeply feeling the labor shortage in all sectors of the economy. We need this x-ray of the labor market so that we, the business community, together with trade unions and the authorities, can identify the set of measures needed to alleviate the labor shortage"
said Steven van Groningen, President of Concordia.
"If we do not act now, against the backdrop of increasingly worrying economic prospects, the sustainable development of the economy will be profoundly affected in the not too distant future. A first problem we will have to address, as the study shows, is to correct the lack of information needed to allow a more accurate assessment of labor market supply and demand, both in terms of quantity and quality".
In Romania, the labour shortage is not measured in an applied and qualitative way, nor is there any analysis of the sectors of activity or occupations with labour shortages, the lack of relevant data and of a standardized process being the main factors.
Mihai Bogza, executive director of Concordia, said:
"The analysis of existing information has allowed the consultants who carried out the Concordia study to identify some characteristics of labor demand that can be a first benchmark for shaping specific labor market measures. A pact between all stakeholders - employers, trade unions and authorities - is needed to quickly identify and implement the right strategy to counter the crisis".
For these reasons, Concordia believes that business, trade unions and the authorities must urgently start a transparent and applied consultation to establish the set of measures needed to stop the growing gap between supply and demand on the labor market.
Concordia states its willingness to cooperate with all stakeholders so that the labor shortage does not end up jeopardizing Romania's economic development.
