Romania remains among the EU countries with the lowest employment rates, even as overall labour market participation across the bloc continues to reach record highs.
In 2025, 76.1% of people aged 20 to 64 were employed across the European Union (the highest level since 2009) reflecting a gradual upward trend.
Romania, however, lags behind at 69.0%, placing it alongside Italy and below the EU average by a significant margin.
This is the result not of a natural cycle, but a structural issue. The most obvious answer is outward migration (though no longer the one-directional exodus it used to be), but also rural underemployment, where Romania continues to struggle with mobilizing segments of its working-age population that remain economically inactive. Countries with comparable demographics, such as Malta, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, have adapted to this problem through high labour market integration and flexible employment structures.
Moreover, despite a long-standing tradition of women in the workforce in Romania (particularly when the state policies of the communist period made dual-income households the norm), we see that the the employment rate for women in Romania currently stands at 59.5%, one of the lowest in the EU. As a result, the gender employment gap reaches 18.7 percentage points — which is among the widest in the bloc. This suggests that increasing overall employment in Romania is less a matter of job creation alone and more one of labour force activation, especially among women.
Let us pause upon structural constraints for women: childcare does play a central role, but in a more complex way than a simple shortage. Romania offers one of the longest parental leave periods in the European Union, often extending up to two years. Paradoxically, this excellent fixture interrupts women’s career continuity and makes re-entry into the workforce more difficult. At the same time, access to childcare for children under the age of three remains limited, especially outside major urban centers.
The rural dimension further complicates the picture. A significant number of women in Romania are engaged in subsistence or semi-subsistence agriculture, which often does not count as formal employment. This means that many women who are economically active in practice are statistically classified as inactive. This contributes to a lower overall employment rate, which does not provide a complete picture of labor in itself.
Further, employment rates among Romanian women may be higher abroad, while domestically they appear lower due to structural constraints and regional disparities.
Most importantly, the structure of the labour market itself limits participation. Compared to countries with higher female employment rates, Romania offers fewer flexible or part-time job opportunities and has weaker systems for reintegrating workers after extended leave. Even where attitudes toward women’s employment are quite open, institutional framework does not consistently support sustained participation.
In practical terms, realistic improvements would likely come not from rapid economic expansion but from targeted shifts like formalizing informal work and improving regional job connectivity. Even modest gains in female participation or reductions in informal employment would significantly narrow the gap with the EU average.
