For the year 2026, a quota of 90,000 new foreign workers admitted to the Romanian labor market is established, according to a draft decision published on Friday by the Ministry of Labor, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity.
According to the explanatory memorandum, the project was developed based on Government Ordinance No. 25/2014 on the employment and posting of foreigners on the territory of Romania, approved by Law No. 14/2016, and taking into account the situation of the Romanian labor market.
Ordinance 25/2014 establishes, as a general rule for employers, the obligation to obtain an employment permit in order to employ a foreigner and, at the same time, establishes the situations in which foreigners can be employed or posted on Romanian territory without an employment/postage permit.
One of the general conditions for issuing an employment permit by the General Inspectorate for Immigration is that the annual quota of newly admitted foreign workers on the labor market has not been exhausted.
According to data from the General Inspectorate for Immigration, by September 30, 2025, 83,914 employment/posting permits had been issued, while a number of 7,418 requests for the issuance of employment/posting permits for the current year were being resolved.
By comparison, in 2024, 105,977 employment/posting permits were issued, in 2023, 101,251 employment/posting permits were issued, and in 2022, 108,880 employment/posting permits were issued.
Data from the General Inspectorate for Immigration also shows that the number of foreigners holding temporary residence permits for employment, secondment, ICT, and highly qualified purposes, valid on September 30, 2025, was 136,023.
Between January 1 and September 30, 2025, 61,954 temporary residence permits were issued for employment purposes and 156 residence permits were issued for posting purposes.
According to the National Employment Agency, in the period January - August 2025 the total number of job vacancies was 407,501 (9% lower than the similar period in 2024).
The main fields of activity, respectively the top ten, in which a significant number of job vacancies were registered with the National Employment Agency, during the mentioned period, were: courier (26,275), goods handler (20,912), unskilled worker in building demolition, masonry lining, mosaic tiles, tiles, sandstone, parquet (20,484), building construction workers (17,799), commercial worker (16,246), car and van driver (12,237), cook assistant (12,077), road freight driver (11,135), unskilled worker in breaking and cutting construction materials (10,878), security guard (10,438).
The total number of unemployed people registered in the records of the National Employment Agency at the end of August 2025 was 253,731 people, of which unemployed people with benefits - 54,140 and unemployed people without benefits - 199,591.
According to data transmitted by the Labor Inspectorate, the number of new individual employment contracts of employees who are citizens of states outside the European Union, concluded between January 1, 2025 and September 25, 2025, was 73,213.
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