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One-quarter of Romania's businesses contemplate importing workforce to cover labor shortage; particularly sought are unskilled or seasonal workers, reveals the PayWell 2019 survey conducted by PwC Romania on a sample of about 100 private companies.
"The companies that have expressed this intention operate mainly in sectors such as HoReCa, building or agriculture. A similar trend is noticeable in business process solution and IT&C services. Romania currently experiences an acute workforce shortage, particularly in the aforementioned sectors, as a result of migration, demographic issues or the education system in the last decades," the cited survey states.
According to PwC estimates, an additional 1 million employees are needed by 2022 to support a 3.5 percent economic growth.
"Importing workforce could be a temporary solution for certain sectors, but in the medium and long term the companies should focus on adopting and implementing training and employee skills development programs, for digital skills in particular, given that in the next decade automation and the introduction of artificial intelligence will preponderantly replace the jobs that involve repetitive activities. Innovation and digitalization will help render the processes efficient and demand for less skilled employees will decrease, especially in fields such as agriculture or the manufacturing industry, where the likelihood for job replacement is highest," said Ionut Sas, Partner, People & Organization Leader PwC Romania.
According to the PwC Workforce Disruption Index survey, approximately 600,000 of Romania's jobs will be affected by the digital transformation driven by the new technologies. Of these, 275,000 could be replaced by automation.
Although companies say that finding personnel is difficult, the share of Romania's economically inactive population is among the highest in the EU, shows the Paywell survey. Excluding retirees and the population aged over 15 who pursue a form of education, more than 1.1 million people are potentially available for work.
The PayWell Romania 2019 Salary and Benefits survey was conducted on a sample of about 100 large and medium-sized private companies in the financial-banking, pharmaceutical, industrial, retail and hotel sectors; the survey looks at wage levels and remuneration policies, and also contains customized analyzes, depending on the geographical distribution, the number of employees and the revenues of the participating companies. The qualitative part of the PayWell report contains information on remuneration policies, for example wage increases, fixed and variable bonuses, as well as an analysis of a number of extra-wage benefits offered by employers.
