Romanian Employers Have Most Pessimistic Employment Outlook for Q1 2010 - Survey

Romanian employers had the most optimistic plans in Europe, Middle East and Africa region early 2009, and trailed in the sixth position among 35 countries worldwide, according to Manpower.

The Manpower employment outlook survey is based on interviews with nearly 71,000 public and private employers in 35 states. In Romania, the research was made on 754 employers.

According to the Manpower survey released Tuesday, 58% of Romanian employers do not foresee any changes in their workforces during the first quarter of 2010, 15% expect to increase their workforces and 26% anticipate reducing their payrolls.

The survey indicates that the labor market will remain somewhat stable over the next three months for workers currently employed, but present few opportunities for job seekers, Manpower said.

The net employment outlook, taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting to see a decrease, stands at a pessimistic minus 11%, unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2009.

Compared to the beginning of 2009, the net employment outlook registered a drop of 27%.

Therefore, Romania is ranked last at an international level by regarding staff employment perspective, next to Spain and Ireland.

Employers in six regions of Romania forecast negative hiring prospects for the next quarter. Hiring intentions among employers in the western region are the country's most optimistic. Employers in the South-East are the least optimistic.

Compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, employers from four of the 10 industry sectors improved their net employment outlooks, while six forecast decreases.

The biggest decline is reported by employers in the restaurant and hotel industry sector with a decrease of 16%. Employers in the construction industry sector are the least optimistic, reporting an outlook of minus 29%.

"The labor market might be stabilizing soon, since almost 60 percent of Romanian employers surveyed indicated they wanted to keep their current staffs intact for the first quarter of the next year. But as was the case last quarter, caution dominates the employers' forecasts for the next quarter. As demand for their products and services continues to be weak, employers are still very selective in their hiring process In this economic context difficulty finding a job will remain high, there are now many more applicants competing for one position available," Manpower general manager Camelia Stanculescu said.

Manpower is a world leader in the employment services industry with a worldwide network of 4,100 offices in 82 countries and 400,000 clients.

Manpower Romania has been operating since April 2003 and has nine branches in Bucharest, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Craiova and Ploiesti.

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