Facing a workforce crisis that threatens economic growth, after millions of Romanians moved abroad in search of better-paying jobs, more than half the companies in Romania are planning to create more jobs to ensure growth next year, a study shows.
The highest demand is for people who can work in social and digital media, according to a human resources study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania.
The biggest growth sector for jobs is in IT, followed by the automobile industry and retail. Some 91% of IT companies are planning to create more jobs next year, seeking to expand positions by one fifth on average. In the auto industry, 71% of companies want to hire 6.2% more employees, the study published by Startup Café site showed.
Forty percent of companies in the financial services industry want to hire more staff, as do one-third of pharma firms.
Ionut Simion, the managing partner of PwC Romania said the country needs a “a million new hires in the next five years to be able to see an average annual growth of 3.5%.”
“As we know, it’s become very hard to find a workforce, and there’s a risk of limiting economic growth.”
The number of unoccupied jobs was about 55,000 in the second quarter of 2019, according to the National Institute of Statistics.
The government increased quotas for non-EU foreign workers in 2019 by 50 percent up to 30,000 work permits, an all-time high number due to the workforce crisis.
Simion said to meet companies’ needs “Both the government and companies should get involved in education programs which develop employees’ skills and competencies, especially digital skills which are more and more in demand by employers as new technologies are widely adopted.”
Most jobs were created this year in digital & social media, jobs such as Chief of IT Digital Solutions, Instructional Designer, Social Media specialist, Digital & Multichannel manager, Digital manager and Online manager.
“The main challenges for human resources departments in 2020 will be staff turnover, lower commitment, a growth in salary costs, and the impact of digitalization on the workforce as well as a deficit in the workforce,” said Oana Munteanu, senior manager People&Organization PwC.
“Using new technologies and automation means new skills and positions, which is reflected in employers’ organigrams,” she said. “Most new jobs in 2019 were in digital and social media.”
The HR Barometer study was carried out in October, based on information supplied by 65 companies. Of those, 54% said they were planning to create new positions next year.
