Despite a labour market boom in the years preceding the COVID‑19 crisis, employment and labour force participation are low in Romania compared to the OECD average. Furthermore, positive labour market trends have slowed recently. Among people aged 15‑64, the employment rate in Romania was 63% in 2023, which is lower than the 70% average across OECD countries. Romania’s low employment rate results from low labour market participation (Figure 2.1). Employment has increased systematically over the last 15 years. The period between 2015 and 2019 was particularly positive, as the employment rate grew from 62% to 66%. In addition, the share of employees in the working-age population grew from 45% to 51%, and the unemployment rate dropped sharply from 7% to 4%. During the COVID‑19 crisis, the employment rate slowed in 2020 and increased only slightly between 2021 and 2023 while the unemployment rate remained elevated at 6%, which is slightly above the OECD average. In 2021, both the employment rate and labour force participation declined by about 4 percentage points because self-employed and domestic workers producing agricultural goods mainly for their own consumption were reclassified from employment into inactivity. There was indeed no visible break down in the labour market in 2021, as the number of employees increased by around 100 000. A structural change in the Romanian labour market occurred between 2008 and 2023 when the share of employees in the working-age population surged from 42% to 54%.
OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Romania 2025
2.1.1. Despite strong improvements, labour market participation is low
Employment, unemployment and labour force participation rates, working-age population (15‑64), 2008‑23
Note: OECD is an unweighted average. Data on employment, unemployment and labour force participation are not comparable in Romania before and after 2021 when around 0.5 million of self-employed and domestic workers producing agricultural goods mainly for their own consumption were reclassified from employment into inactivity.
Source: OECD Data Explorer • Employment and unemployment by five‑year age group and sex - indicators and calculations based on Eurostat’s datasets: Population by sex, age and educational attainment level and Employees by sex, age and educational attainment level for employees.
2.1.2. The working-age population is shrinking rapidly
The Romanian working-age population is shrinking rapidly. This contraction is due mainly to past low fertility rates and strong emigration. The shrinking of the working-age population makes it more urgent for Romania to tap the employment potential of its existing population. Between 2024 and 2040, the number of people aged 15‑64 is projected to decline by 15% in Romania, while this number is projected to remain unchanged in OECD countries on average (Figure 2.2). Concurrently, the Romanian workforce will become older with the median age increasing from 44.5 years to 47.5 between 2024 and 2040. Meanwhile, the projected increase in the share of older people in Romania is much more modest than across OECD countries. The number of people aged 65 and older is projected to increase by 15% by 2040 in Romania, which is substantially less than the 31% average among OECD countries. This results from relatively low longevity, as the current life expectancy in Romania is 76.5 years. Among OECD countries, the average life expectancy is 80.3 years.
Projected change in the total population and working-age population, 2024‑40
Note: OECD is a weighted average.
Source: OECD calculations based on OECD Data Explorer • Population projections.
2.1.3. Large regional disparities
Regional disparities are very large in Romania. In particular, they reflect the large share of agricultural production that occurs in the northern and southern regions of the country, the fact that metropolitan centres are located in the middle and the fact that the western part of the country enjoys proximity to external markets. In Romania, the ratio of total employment to the working-age population varied from 41% to 95% between regions in 2022 (Figure 2.3). Romania’s metropolitan regions, particularly Bucharest, are prospering with high employment rates and wages. Employers confirm that Bucharest, aa well as north-west, centre and western regions of the country see high labour shortages while labour demand remains weak in the eastern regions. Low employment and high shares of agriculture in employment result in low incomes and high poverty rates. Poverty rates also vary substantially across regions, from 2% in Bucharest to more than 30% in the south-west and north-east regions (Eurostat, 2024[1]).
Ratio of regional employment to the working-age population, 2022
Note: The regions shown in white text refer those with the four largest cities and in black text to the four regions with the lowest rates.
The ratio is calculated as the number of workers divided by the working-age population that is able to work, aged 16‑61 for women and 16‑65 for men, based on the national definition.
Source: Tempo online, http://statistici.insse.ro:8077/tempo-online/#/pages/tables/insse-table, Table FOM116A – Employment rate by gender, macro-regions, development regions and counties.
2.2.1. Low employment of disadvantaged groups
In Romania, employment is particularly low among young people, older workers and those with low educational attainment. At 19%, the employment rate of young people in Romania was twice lower than the OECD average of 41% in 2023. This rate reflects difficulties with regards to the transition from school to work (Figure 2.4). The employment rate of older workers stood at 51% in Romania and 66% in among OECD countries on average in 2023, signalling that options to retire below the statutory retirement age are used frequently, and older workers face difficulties in finding employment opportunities. Only 46% of people with low education worked in Romania in 2022, while this statistic stood at 59% on average across OECD countries. Meanwhile, people in their prime age (25‑54) and those with medium or high educational attainment have employment rates similar to the average across OECD.
The gender employment gap is very large in Romania. The gap has increased significantly over the last decades, from 11% to 17% between 2000 and 2023, because men’s employment increased faster than women’s (Figure 2.4). On average across OECD countries, the gender gap in employment declined from 21% to 14% between 2000 and 2023. Among EU OECD countries, only Greece and Italy had a higher gender gap than Romania in 2023. Romania’s low female employment rate stands out compared to high rates of women’s employment in other Central and Eastern European countries, such as Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. Female employment is particularly low among mothers and women in rural areas in Romania. Indeed, in 2023, the employment rate of women aged 18‑64 in households with children stood at 57% in Romania and at 70% on average in the European Union, (Eurostat, 2024[2]). In rural areas, 44% of women aged 15‑64 were employed in Romania versus 65% in the European Union on average (Eurostat, 2024[3]).
Note: Educational attainment based on ISCED 2011. Low: below upper secondary (ISCED Levels 0‑2); medium: upper-secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary (ISCED Levels 3‑4); and high: tertiary education (ISCED Levels 5‑8). OECD is a weighted average. There is a break in series in 2021.
The large gender employment gap reflects strong gender disparities in Romanian society more broadly. In the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) gender equality index – which combines gender equality with indicators related to work, income, education, time share, power and health – Romania scored last in the EU in 2023 (EIGE, 2023[4]). Romania stands out in terms of women having low incomes compared to men, few women participating in public office or holding top management positions in private companies, and women often reporting unmet medical needs. In Romania, care activities are predominantly performed by women. Enrolment rates in early childhood education (children aged 0‑2 years old) are very low, particularly among children in rural areas. These low rates limit women’s options for participating in the labour market (Robayo-Abril et al., 2023[5]).
2.2.2. Very high number of young people not in employment, education or training
Low employment and low educational attainment among young people in Romania are major challenges. In 2023, nearly one in five people aged 15‑29 were not in employment, education or training (NEET). This figure represents the highest share among European OECD countries. For comparison, one in eight young people are NEET across OECD countries on average (Figure 2.5). At 25%, the NEET rate among young women in Romania is higher than in any European OECD country. As in many other countries, most NEETs in Romania are not looking for a job, i.e. they are inactive, not unemployed. Unlike in most OECD countries, the share of NEETs among youth in Romania has not declined over the last decade. Across OECD countries on average, the share of NEETs decreased from 16% to 13% between 2013 and 2023. Early school leaving is one of the main factors behind a high share of NEETs, and it is particularly frequent among the Roma population (World Bank, 2023[6]).
Share of 15‑29 year‑olds not in employment, education or training (NEET), by work status 2023
Note: NEET refers to young people who are neither employed nor in formal education or training. OECD is an unweighted average and excludes Chile, Japan and Korea. Data refer to 2022 for Chile.
2.2.3. Stronger growth of low-skill jobs than high-skill jobs
The share of low-skill jobs increased by 3.6 percentage points in Romania between 2008 and 2019. Meanwhile, the share of high-skill jobs in employment increased by 1.7 percentage points in Romania, compared to 3.5 percentage points in the EU on average (Figure 2.6). At 24.6% in 2019, the share of the high-skill jobs is the lowest in Romania in the EU. In addition, Romania’s share of high-skilled jobs falls much below the EU average of 41.2%. This low share of high-skill jobs reflects both supply and demand factors. Modernisation of VET systems and stronger involvement of employers in providing both training and learning opportunities are needed to secure rapid growth of both productivity and wages.
Percentage point change in the occupational distribution, 2008‑19
Note: Sorted in ascending order of high skill. Total employment refers to civilian employment excluding agricultural workers. High-skill occupations include jobs classified under the ISCO‑88 major groups: legislators, senior officials, and managers (group 1), professionals (group 2), and technicians and associate professionals (group 3). Middle skill occupations include clerks (group 4), craft and related trades workers (group 7), and plant and machine operators and assemblers (group 8). Low skill occupations include service workers and shop and market sales workers (group 5), and elementary occupations (group 9).
Source: OECD calculations based on the European Union Labour Force Survey (EULFS).
Meanwhile, Romania has experienced a substantial shift of employment out of agriculture and primarily into services. The share of employment in agriculture shrunk by 5.9 percentage points between 2008 and 2019, while it remained broadly stable in the EU on average (Figure 2.7). During the same period, the share of employment share in services increased by 8.3 percentage points in Romania. Despite this rapid change, Romania’s share of workers in the agricultural sector remained the largest in the EU in 2022, at 10.8%. This figure is much higher than the average across EU countries of 3.5%. As of 2022, only 56% of workers are employed in services in Romania, while more than 60% of workers are employed in services in every other EU country.
Percentage point change in the sector distribution of employment, 2008‑19
Note: Data sorted by increasing change in the service sector.
Source: OECD calculations based on the Eurostat dataset: Employment by sex, age and economic activity (from 2008 onwards, NACE Rev. 2).
2.2.4. Low levels but strong increases of wages and productivity
Wages and labour productivity are low in Romania. After accounting for price level differences across countries, hourly labour productivity stood at USD 37 in Romania, which is 33% lower than the OECD average of USD 55 in 2023 (Figure 2.8). Similarly, annual wages were 21% lower in Romania than on average across OECD countries in 2023.
Romania has been catching up with higher-income OECD economies in terms of labour productivity and wages. Between 2007 and 2022, labour productivity increased by 60% in Romania, compared to 15% on average among OECD countries. In the near term, effective deployment of significant EU funds would lift future productivity and living standards. Over longer term, investment in education is the surest way to boost the economy (OECD, 2024[7]).
A few years prior to the COVID‑19 crisis, the Romanian labour market was growing increasingly tight. Following the crisis, the labour market became less dynamic. Wage growth accelerated substantially between 2015 and 2020 in Romania and gross real wages increased by 73%, while net real wages increased by 43%. At the same time, productivity grew by only 18% (Figure 2.8). Gross wages increased more than net wages because social security contributions were largely shifted from employers to employees in 2018. Gross wages were then raised accordingly in compensation. Meanwhile, between 2015 and 2019, employment increased strongly, and unemployment declined. That said, in 2021 and 2022 high inflation eroded real wages and labour productivity partially caught up. Furthermore, unemployment remained elevated after a jump in 2020. In 2023, strong growth of real wages returned but the unemployment rate did not change.
Source: OECD Data Explorer • Productivity levels (Panel A) OECD Data Explorer • Average annual wages and unpublished data for Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania (Panel B) and OECD Tax-Benefit model version 2.6.0. (Panel C) (accessed 23 July 2024).
2.2.5. High earnings inequalities and substantial gender pay gap
Earnings inequalities are high in Romania. The earnings of the highest 10% of earners were 4.3 times higher than those of the lowest 10% in 2022 (Figure 2.9). This level of earnings dispersion is much greater than in most OECD countries. Large earnings inequalities reflect unequal educational opportunities across regions and social groups, a large shadow economy, few job opportunities in rural areas and, potentially, the limited bargaining power of many workers. However, the gender wage gap – at 5.8% in 2021 – was around half the average among OECD countries.
Note: The gender wage gap is defined as the difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earnings of men. All earnings estimates refer to gross earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. Data refer to 2021 for Romania in Panel B. Country-specific variations from this definition as well as national data sources and earnings concepts can be found in the metadata of the sources below.
Source: OECD Data Explorer • Decile ratios of gross earnings and OECD Data Explorer • Gender wage gap (accessed 14 October 2024).
2.2.6. High prevalence of informality
Undeclared work in the private sector was estimated to be 27.1% of gross value added (GVA) in Romania in 2019, the highest value among EU countries and almost twice the EU average of 14.8% (Figure 2.10).1 Undeclared work increased slightly in Romania from 26.2% in 2013, while it declined in the EU on average from 16.4% to 14.8% between 2013 and 2019 (Franic, Horodnic and Williams, 2023[8]). Working informally in Romania is particularly widespread in the areas of subsistence agriculture, traditional trades and crafts, domestic work, and seasonal activities in the construction sector or hospitality industry (Pop, 2022[9]). In addition, many people in marginalised communities work informally, as occasional workers, mostly in agriculture, construction and in the care sector (Pop, 2019[10]). Trade unions signal that a common practice in Romania is the payment of social contributions and taxes on only a part of wages. This practice boosts take‑home pay while lowering financing of social benefits. The practice is connected to the fact that workers perceive social services as precarious and public resources as unfairly distributed. Widespread underreporting of wages might explain why the minimum wage is used as the minimum base for calculating social contributions without adjustments for part-time employment. An analysis caried out by the World Bank and the Romanian Ministry of Finances reveals that in Romania in 2020, income reported by households in surveys was 9% higher than income reported to tax authorities. This statistic is twice higher for lower income groups.
While employees make up 81% of undeclared workers, most self-employed workers and domestic family members work informally in Romania (Franic, Horodnic and Williams, 2023[8]).2 In 2022, the self‑employed made up 11% of total employment in Romania, slightly less than the 13% average among EU countries (Eurostat, 2024[11]). In Romania, more than half of the self-employed work in agriculture, forestry or the fishing sector, versus one in eight on average in the European Union (Eurostat, 2024[12]). Many self-employed workers are not covered by pension and health insurance in Romania, as only about 12% of these workers paid pension and health contributions in 2017 (Pop, 2019[10]). This reflects the fact that pension and health contributions are compulsory only for self-employed workers whose income exceeds the minimum wage.
Romania recently introduced a voucher scheme aimed at formalising outsourced household services. In April 2022, Romania passed a law that regulates domestic activities such as housekeeping, gardening, cooking etc. The law became effective in 2023. It stipulates the payment of domestic workers with service vouchers, which is similar to the Belgian and French schemes (OECD, 2021[13]). Households may buy vouchers with up to a 12.5% discount, depending on the total number of vouchers purchased, and then use these vouchers to pay for household services. Half of the income earned with the vouchers is tax deductible. This income is neither included in the means testing for minimum-income benefits nor affects eligibility for unemployment insurance. The scheme aims to formalise work of 60 000 people by 2026 (Pop, 2022[9]).
Additionally, the co‑operation between the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and the Labour Inspection was improved in 2022, in order to better fight informal employment (Government of Romania, 2022[14]). Trade unions signal, however, that the Labour Inspection lacks sufficient resources in terms of available staff and training options. The Labour Inspection mandate includes verifying employment contracts, but it does not include examining wage reporting or ensuring proper tax or social contribution reporting (these actions fall under the purview of tax inspections). As such, neither underreporting of wages nor informal self‑employment are the primary focus of labour inspections.
Undeclared work in the private sector as a percentage of total gross value added, 2013 and 2019
Note: Estimates are based on the labour input method, which calculates the gap between self-reported labour supply in labour force surveys with official employment figures reported by businesses, e.g. in declarations to tax authorities, national statistical offices, or labour or social security authorities.
Source: Franic, J., I. Horodnic and C. Williams (2023), Extent of undeclared work in the European Union, www.ela.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2023-03/Study-on-the-extent-of-undeclared-work-in-the-EU.pdf.
2.3.1. Population ageing is accelerating
As in many other countries, the share of Romania’s population that is aged 15 years or younger is shrinking. This segment of the population is projected to decline from 16.1% to 14.5% between 2024 and 2040 (Figure 2.11). This decline is driven by low past fertility, which has remained below 2.1 children per woman (the rate that preserves population size) since 1990. The total fertility rate reached its lowest point of around 1.3 in 2002 in Romania. Subsequently, it increased steadily to around 1.7 in 2016 and has remained at this level since. Romania’s fertility rate is higher than the around 1.5 in Hungary and Poland, and similar to that of Denmark, France and Sweden. The share of people older than 65 is expected to increase in Romania from 20.0% in 2024 to 25.5% in 2040 and 30.0% in 2060. The old-age to working-age ratio is projected to increase from 34 to 59 between 2024 and 2060, while a smaller increase from 32 to 50 is expected to occur in OECD countries on average during that same period.
Note: OECD is a weighted average. Demographic old-age to working-age is defined as the number of individuals aged 65 and over per 100 aged 20‑64.
Source: OECD Data Explorer • Population projections. (accessed March 2025).
2.3.2. Emigration has contributed to working-age population decline
Similar to other countries in the region, strong emigration has accelerated ageing pressure and added to labour shortages in Romania. The annual net migration rate was below ‑0.3% in the whole period after 1990. It fell to below ‑0.7% between 2005‑10, as Romania joined EU in 2007. Total net emigration since 2000 amounts to around 10% of the population. Following Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine and the influx of a large number of humanitarian migrants, net migration became positive in 2022 (Figure 2.12).
Annual number of immigrants to and emigrants from Romania, and migration rate, 2010‑23
Source: Romanian National Institute of Statistics migration data (https://insse.ro/cms/en/tags/press-release-resident-population-and-international-migration), Statistical Yearbooks of Romania (https://insse.ro/cms/en/content/statistical-yearbooks-romania) and OECD calculations based on OECD Data Explorer • Historical population data for the migration rate.
There were already about 3.4 million Romanian emigrants counted in censuses in OECD countries in 2015‑16, more than a 200% increase over 2000‑01, and 17% of the total Romanian population. Romania was the country that saw the largest increase in its diaspora over this period. Its emigrant population overtook that of Germany, Italy and Türkiye (Figure 2.13). The largest part of this increase in emigration occurred in the late 2000s, as Romania joined the European Union in 2007. Emigration subsequently slowed in the early 2010s. Women outnumber men in the emigrant population; they comprised about 54% of the total in 2015‑16. Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom were the main destination countries for Romanian emigrants, together comprising almost three‑quarters of Romanians in the OECD. The 2010s saw a shift in destination towards the United Kingdom.
Total emigrant population (ages 15+) and the growth rate by country of origin, 2000/01 and 2015/16
Note: The growth rate is the difference between the levels in 2000/01 and 2015/16, as a percentage of the level in 2000/01.
Source: OECD (2019[15]), Talent Abroad: A Review of Romanian Emigrants, Talent Abroad, https://doi.org/10.1787/bac53150-en.
2.4.1. Low income and average income inequalities
In Romania, household incomes are low, while income inequalities are average. After adjusting for price‑level differences across countries, the median disposable household income in Romania stood at 59% of the OECD average in 2022. This figure is similar to that of Hungary, the Slovak Republic and Greece and substantially higher than that of Costa Rica and Mexico (Figure 2.14). Income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient of disposable income was similar in Romania to the OECD average, at 0.31. Income inequalities are lower in many European countries, e.g. in Belgium, Czechia, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic.
Annual median equivalised disposable income in US dollars at PPP rates and Gini of disposable income, 2022
Note: Household incomes are after taxes and transfers and equivalised using the square root of the household size. Data refer to 2019 (Denmark), 2020 (Australia, Germany) and 2021 (Japan, Switzerland, United Kingdom). OECD is an unweighted average of the 36 countries shown. The value of goods produced for own consumption is excluded from disposable income in Romania, while it is included in most other countries, in line with OECD standards.
Source: OECD calculations based on OECD Data Explorer • Income distribution database.
2.4.2. High poverty among children and older people
At 16.2%, the income poverty rate was substantially higher in Romania than the OECD average at 10.9% in 2021 (Figure 2.15). Compared to 2013, income poverty decreased in Romania by 2 percentage points. The decline was strongest in households with children and adults younger than 25. This is linked to improvements in family benefits, as government spending on family benefits increased from 1.2% to 1.9% of GDP between 2013 and 2021 (Eurostat, 2024[16]). Despite these general improvements, the poverty rate of people older than 65 has increased.
Low average income and large income poverty lead to very high material deprivation in Romania though levels of material deprivation have fallen significantly of late. Indeed, 15% of the population in Romania lived in severe material deprivation in 2020, as compared the EU average of 6% (Figure 2.15). Severe material deprivation in Romania was much lower in 2020 than it has been historically, however, as 29.8% of the population lived in severe material deprivation in 2013. Regional disparities are substantial in the country, and the severe material deprivation stood at 24% in rural areas in 2020, compared to only 4% in cities. Severe material deprivation is highest among single parents and families with children, particularly with three or more children, for whom it stood at 47% (Eurostat, 2024[17]). That said, the severe deprivation rate has halved over the last decade as living conditions have greatly improved in Romania.
Note: Severe material deprivation is defined as the enforced inability (rather than choice) to afford at least four of the following nine items: to pay one’s rent, mortgage or utility bills; to keep one’s home adequately warm; facing unexpected expenses; to eat meat or proteins regularly; to go on holiday; a television set; a washing machine; a car; a telephone. Data refer to 2018 for Iceland and the United Kingdom (Panel A). Poverty rates are the share of people living on less than 50% of median equivalised household income. The value of goods produced for own consumption is excluded from disposable income in Romania, while it is included in most other countries, in line with OECD standards.
Source: Eurostat dataset: Severe material deprivation rate by age and sex and the OECD Data Explorer • Income distribution database.
2.4.3. Widespread poverty among inhabitants of rural areas, people with disabilities, and the Roma minority
The difference in poverty rates between rural areas and cities is extreme in Romania and is the largest in the European Union. In 2022 in Romania, the poverty rate in rural areas was 34%, while it was 6% in cities. In comparison, average poverty rates among EU countries were 17.5% in rural areas and 16.3% in cities in 2022 (Eurostat, 2024[18]). An important dimension of this regional disparity in Romania is that marginalised communities lack access to basic public infrastructure and social services (Pop, 2023[19]). Most marginalised communities live in rural areas, while in urban areas social segregation creates an important obstacle to integrating marginalised communities (Government of Romania, 2023[20]).
In an academic paper, Pop (2023[21]) summarises policy analysis on poverty in Romania by pointing to three main poverty risk factors: 1) precarious work among rural residents, a significant proportion of whom are engaged in subsistence agricultural activities; 2) low education attainment; and 3) being a young or older person, part of the Roma minority, or having a disability. People with disabilities faced a poverty rate that is 14 percentage points higher than in the general population in Romania. In comparison, on average in the EU, people with disabilities have a poverty rate that is 11 percentage points higher than other residents (Eurostat, 2024[22]).
Romania’s large Roma ethnic minority group faces a particularly high risk of poverty. The size of the Roma minority group is estimated to be between 0.6 million (based on 2021 census data) and up to 2 million (based on surveys and expert estimates), hence between 3% and 10% of the total population. The difference in estimates reflects uncertainty about the extent to which ethnicity goes underreported. Many experts assess the size of the Roma minority group to be 1.2‑1.5 million, compared to the total population of Romania of 19 million people. Additionally, many people belonging to the Roma ethnic group do not self-identify as such (Government of Romania, 2023[20]).The income poverty rate among people belonging to Roma minority group was assessed to be 78% in 2021, up from 70% in 2016 (FRA, 2023[23]). Still, Romania does not stand out compared to the other 10 EU countries with substantial Roma minority populations. In these countries, the poverty rate of the Roma population varies from 71% in Bulgaria to 98% in Italy and Spain. One in three Roma individuals in Romania live without running water, and one in ten live without electricity (Government of Romania, 2022[24]). In Romania, about half of Roma people live in low-quality housing, versus 10% of non-Roma people (World Bank, 2023[6]). More than half of Roma children live in severe material deprivation (FRA, 2023[23]). Spatial segregation adds to the challenges, and many Roma people live in marginalised communities. As of 2017, about 3.2% of the overall urban population and 6.2% of the overall rural population were estimated to live in marginalised communities, including in informal settlements (Pop, 2023[19]).
Employment outcomes for Roma minority group, particularly women, are poor in Romania. The employment rate for 20‑64 year‑old members of the Roma minority group stood at 41% in 2021 (FRA, 2023[23]). This is substantially less than the 71% employment rate for the general population in Romania. That said, it is similar to average rate of 43% for Roma people living in the 10 EU countries with large Roma populations (employment rates vary from 25% in Spain to 62% in Hungary). The employment rate of Roma women is substantially lower than that of men, as Roma women are predominantly responsible for care and domestic tasks (World Bank, 2018[25]). Many members of the Roma community work as seasonal labourers while those who are better-off typically work as tradespersons selling cars, carpets or furniture (Matras, 2011[26]).
Among other ethnic minorities, the labour market participation rate for people aged 15‑64 was substantially lower than the general population. Indeed, the labour market participation rate of minorities in this age group was 54% for Croatians, 48% for Ukrainians and 55% for Turks in 2021, versus 66% for the general population (NIS, 2023[27]). Labour market participation was around the population-wide average among most other ethnic minorities, including Hungarians, German, Serbs and Tatars. In terms of population size, the Hungarian ethic minority is large, as it slightly exceeds 1 million people, based on census data. As of 2021, other minority groups, including German, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Tatar and Turkish people were smaller, with populations of between 10 000 and 50 000 people. Before the full-scale Russian aggression on Ukraine the number of Ukrainians in Romania was estimated to be slightly less than 50 000, but it has increased substantially in the last two years as discussed in Chapter 4.
People with disabilities have limited access to the labour market in Romania. The employment gap for people with disabilities was 32 percentage points in 2022, while it was 21 percentage points on average across the EU. The gap was higher than in Romania only in Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania and Norway (Eurostat, 2024[28]). The employment gap for people with disabilities in Romania has not increased over the last decade. Among people with disabilities, the employment rate is particularly low for those with low education and those living in rural areas (Grigoraș et al., 2021[29]).
Attitudes towards minorities are more discriminatory in Romania than in many other countries. Two or three times more people say they would feel uncomfortable having colleagues who hail from religious or ethnic minority groups (Figure 2.16). The most common negative attitude is against LGBTIQ+ people, as almost 40% of Romanians say they would feel “uncomfortable” working with such colleagues. Importantly, 23% of respondents say they would not feel comfortable when working with colleagues belonging to the Roma community, which is substantially more than the average across EU countries. The World Bank (2023[6]) assesses that being Roma comes with a strong social stigma in Romania, and spatial segregation and discrimination are severe.
Share of respondents who would feel “uncomfortable” if a colleague at work with whom they are in daily contact, belonged to the following groups, in Romania and EU27, 2023
Note: Results are based on answers to the question “Regardless of whether you are actually working or not, please tell me how comfortable you would feel, if a colleague at work with whom you are in daily contact, belonged to each of the following groups?”
Despite all challenges related to labour market and social outcomes, life satisfaction in Romania is higher than in the OECD on average. Asked to grade their life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to10, prime‑age people in Romania gave it a 7.9 in 2022, compared to the OECD average of 7.4 (Figure 2.17). In 2016, the positive self-assessment of Romanians was even higher, at 8.5. People with higher levels of education show substantially higher levels of life satisfaction, while people who are older than 65 express lower levels of life satisfaction in Romania and many other countries.
Average life satisfaction (on a scale of 1 to 10), 2022
Note: OECD is an unweighted average which excludes Chile, Costa Rica and the United States. Year exceptions: 2018 (Iceland), 2020 (Australia) and 2021 (Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom).
References
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← 1. Schneider and Asllani (2022[30]) estimate the scope of shadow economy in Romania at 29% of GDP, second only to Bulgaria in the EU and compared to the EU average of 17.3%.ILO (2018[31]) estimates the share of informal workers in Romania is 29% in 2018.
← 2. Indeed, 62.5% of the self-employed and 60.1% family workers work informally in Romania while this is the case for 18.8% of dependent workers (Franic, Horodnic and Williams, 2023[8]).