Approximately one million jobless in Romania due to COVID-19

The number of jobless people in Romania, due to the novel coronavirus, is about one million, taking into account the employment contracts suspended and terminated at the end of May, a press release of the National Confederation for Women Entrepreneurship (CONAF) reads on Monday.

"To this figure will be added the number of Romanian jobseekers coming from abroad. Because the economic situation is in decline around the world, it is expected that more and more Romanians will decide to return home," the release adds.

According to the Eurostat data, the share of the working population in Romania (aged 20 to 64) that left the country has tripled in a decade, from 7.5pct in 2007 to 19.7pct in 2017. Some statistics show that in Italy there are about 1.2 million Romanian nationals, in Germany - one million, in Spain - 600,000, in the US - 500,000, in the UK - 450,000, in Canada - 250,000, in Israel - 200,000, in France - 100,000, in Austria - 100,000, in Belgium - 100,000, in Greece, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal - about 50,000, etc.

Since joining the European Union in 2007, according to the World Bank (WB), Romanians working abroad have sent USD 36.33 billion to the country.

In 2019 alone, Romanians from abroad sent USD 7.235 billion to the country, according to the World Bank. According to the National Bank of Romania (BNR), foreign direct investments amounted to EUR 5.3 billion last year, of which the capital holdings (including the estimated net reinvested profit) amounted to EUR 5.2 billion, and intra-group loans registered a net value of EUR 119 million. Thus, the USD 7.2 billion sent to the country, Romanian foreign workers were practically the largest foreign investors in Romania, the CONAF release states.

"From an economic, and also a social point of view, Romania urgently needs a medium- and long-term labour market strategy to avoid such slippages in the future. Labour should be a priority not only in election years, but in general, and 2020 can be the year of economic reconstruction based on the basic pillar: labour force. The solution can only be found together, employers, unions, authorities. That is why we have to ask ourselves what we will replace the money sent home by Romanian workers abroad with? How will we manage to create, in a short time, a record number of jobs for those left without a job in the country, but also for those who are now back home," CONAF president Cristina Chirian says.