employment agency

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc on Sunday dismissed Silviu Bian from his position of state secretary and head of the National Employment Agency, following his arrest on corruption charges, Government spokeswoman Ioana Muntean told MEDIAFAX.

Romania’s National Employment Agency chief Silviu Bian was caught by anticorruption prosecutors Saturday as he was receiving 80,000 lei (EUR18,500) as bribe, people close to the matter told MEDIAFAX.

The number of jobless people in Romania could reach 550,000 - 600,000 by the end of the year, according to Silviu Bian, head of Romania’s’ national employment agency, who added the estimate was made considering the realities on the country’s labor market.

Romania will scrap over 47,000 jobs by October, of which over 3,500 job cut notices were received over the past week, the country’s employment agency said Wednesday.

Part of the companies that announced they would lay off about 35,000 people in the interval Nov 2008 - Mar 2009, withdrew their notifications to local employment agencies, said Thursday Sonia Diaconescu, official within Romania’s national employment agency.