We have about 5.2 million pensioners. Some of them (700-800 thousand) also have jobs, they are active. 4.4 million do not engage in economic activity: they are inactive. Of the 4.4 million, 1 million are under the age of 64, said Ionuts Dumitru, chief economist at Raiffeisen Bank.

“Here is a problem that is currently without a solution: special pensions. We allow ourselves the luxury of retiring people at the top of their careers, paying many of them very high, and the vast majority of them are not motivated to return to the job market. Of the 4 million inactive, more than 90% do not want to return to the labor market,” he said during a conference organized by CursDeGuvernare.ro.

What the mass media hide about pensioners

“We talk about a standard retirement age of 62-65 (as the average doesn’t), but the actual age is much lower because the averages are made up of those who retire at 65 and those who retire at 40,” said Dumitruk.

So the data suggests that it is a myth that there is a lot of work in Romania, but we are discussing environments that hide some things.

“The active life expectancy in Romania is somewhere around 30 years, according to European Commission statistics, and is the lowest in Europe. We know that the media hides a lot. The average consists of those who work over 65 and are still economically active at 70 (because there are retirees who are still working) and those who leave economic activity at an almost shameful age, at 40, when I am at the top of my career – said the economist.

According to him, the state allows him the luxury of paying him well to sit at home and do nothing.

“Although we spent a lot of money on schools and specializations, we force them to stay at home. Here, the policy should be changed in the sense of encouraging the continuation of economic activity,” explained Ionuts Dumitru.