Romania’s population is shrinking, and this is also reflected in the labor market. The labor force, that is, people who are able to work whether they are working or not, is also shrinking because there are “discouraged” workers who stop looking for work because they no longer expect to find one. According to statistics, there are about 150,000 people who have lost their spirit in Romania. How much does a city like Arad, Pitesti or Braila cost?

There are many reasons why people leave the labor market. Some (very few) understand the challenges of new technologies and go back to school to get a specialization. Others have health problems or other family priorities that prevent them from looking for work. But some stop searching because they simply despair.

According to the definition of Statistics, discouraged persons are inactive persons who are ready to work in the next two weeks, who stated that they are not looking for work because they believe that there is no suitable job.

“Disbelief” is not just a state of mind. This is the official term the INS uses to describe Romanians who would fill an entire medium-sized city if they all lived in one place.

Thus, although the unemployment rate reported by the INS is decreasing, it should be taken into account that there are many Romanians who have refused to send resumes and have practically stopped looking for work.

“Discouraged” and their forms of survival

Margareta Plopeanu has a master’s degree in graphic design and owns a small creative company that worked for a domestic branch of a foreign client. Within two years, the client was absorbed by a larger multinational company and the new owners had their own teams to work with. So the contracts with Margarita were no longer extended. At the age of 50, she is on the verge of giving up her few employees because she can fulfill the orders that come to her herself.

Her firm approached dozens of large firms with a request for cooperation, without even receiving a response. She can’t afford to retire either, but she doesn’t expect her business to recover either. So she is thinking of getting a job as a driver for a ride-sharing company or as a salesperson.

“I began to doubt my own strength. I just came to the conclusion that my entire career was over. Companies in my area of ​​expertise are either looking for low income workers or dealing with artificial intelligence or other applications. They don’t seem to need flesh and blood people,” she says.

Discouraged workers like Margaret are not the only ones disappearing from the labor market, but there is little public information about their numbers and who these people really are and how they manage to cope.

Someone managed to save money and live on savings, others buy seniority and drag it out for several years until they can retire.

The insufficient data we have unfortunately does not tell us how many Romanians add life insurance and unemployment insurance provisions.

Going back to school to learn new skills is another factor that few people think about in their 50+ years.

Maryana L. decided to retrain after she became unemployed despite having a “real” doctorate. He received standard responses to the emails he sent. “The feedback on my interview skills was good. I knew how to do what was asked of me, I did everything you were supposed to do, but something didn’t work out.” Unfortunately, you are overqualified for our company!”

So she took a programming course, and at the age of 44, joined the company as an intern. “It was a bit strange – my supervisors were 22-23 years old, younger than my children… It was strange to feel like an intern at 44,” she says.

INS: In the total number of unemployed, graduates of higher education institutions made up 6.9%, of which men made up 58.5%.

From the distribution by level of completed education, it can be seen that among the total number of unemployed, the highest shares of unemployed with secondary education (42.3%), with secondary education – 26.3%, with secondary education – 15.5%. were unemployed graduates of vocational schools, additional or apprentices. Among the total number of unemployed, graduates of higher education institutions made up 6.9%, among them men made up 58.5%, the INS shows.

The unemployed with work experience (those who worked before becoming unemployed) accounted for about half of the total number of unemployed. Among them, 67.3% were men, 61.3% lived in rural areas, 39.7% had secondary education, and 4.8% were young (15-24 years old).

The main reason why more than a third of the unemployed who stopped working in the last 8 years was dismissal or closure of the enterprise for economic reasons (37.7%). Important weights were also given to people who finished temporary activities (30.1%); those who stopped working because of family and caring responsibilities accounted for only 7.2% of the total.

Of the nearly 140,000 unemployed people who stopped working in the last 8 years, 94.6% worked in private sector units.

Of the nearly 140,000 unemployed people who stopped working in the past 8 years, 94.6% worked in private sector units, 79.4% were paid at their last place of employment, 33.7% were employed as unskilled workers, and 22.1% came from manufacturing industry.

The average duration of unemployment in 2022 was 14.7 months. The shortest average duration of unemployment is registered among young unemployed people (15-24 years old) from cities (9.7 months), and the longest (21.4 months) among unemployed people aged 45 years and older from cities.

The unemployed who were unemployed for a long time (12 months or more) accounted for 38.5% of the total number of unemployed. Among the long-term unemployed (unemployed for 12 months or more), 61.9% were men. By place of residence, 61.1% lived in rural areas.

Long-term unemployment was prominent among those with vocational, further or apprenticeship training (43.7%), among those with primary school education (42.3%), and among those with higher education (41.4 %).

In 2022, 45.5% of the unemployed aged 45 and older, 38.7% in the 35-44 age group, 37.8% in the 25-34 age group were unemployed for 12 months or more, 31, 0% of people aged 15-24, youth (the share of unemployed 15-24-year-olds with a duration of unemployment of 6 months or more in the total number of unemployed of the same age group) was 55.2%. Higher values ​​of this indicator were recorded among men (58.3%) and people from rural areas (55.3%).

The level of long-term unemployment (the share of the unemployed who have been out of work for 12 months or more in the active population) was 2.2%. By sex, this indicator had the following values: 2.3% for men and 2.0% for women, and by place of residence – 3.1% in rural areas versus 1.5% in urban areas.

The economic dependency ratio (the number of inactive and unemployed returning per 1000 employed) reached the highest value (1672.4‰) in the South-East region and the lowest value (982.3‰) in the Bucharest-Ilfov region.