Three-quarters of Romanian employees (75%) feel increased financial pressure due to the recent wave of price hikes, while more than a third (35%) say they are willing to take on an additional job to earn extra income, according to a survey published on Tuesday.
According to data compiled by the eJobs platform, nearly half of respondents say they feel overwhelmed and barely manage to cover basic expenses, 19.3% say they are coping but have had to give up small pleasures or the habit of saving money at the end of the month, while only 5.3% report a stable financial situation and say they have not felt a significant difference compared with the period before price increases.
At the same time, 42.5% of those surveyed believe that, in 2026, a single source of income is no longer sufficient to ensure a decent standard of living. A further 48.1% nuance this view, saying that one income may be enough, but only if it exceeds RON 7,000 net per month.
A much smaller share (1.2%) believe a single source of income is sufficient, while 8.2% say they can manage on one salary if they are very frugal.
"In this context, nearly 35% of respondents are not only willing to find an additional activity to generate extra income, but are already interested and actively searching for such opportunities, while for another 18.9% this has become a top priority. Some 29.5% would seriously consider it if they found something they enjoyed, and a further 5% already have a secondary activity alongside their main job. Most would opt for flexible work, allowing them to choose their schedule and workload, such as food delivery or ride-sharing," explained Bogdan Badea, CEO of the online recruitment platform, in the statement.
According to the same source, only 27% of respondents prefer a stable activity with a fixed income, while 52% acknowledge that a single job is no longer sufficient and favour a combination of a fixed-income job and flexible work that allows control over schedule and workload.
The survey also shows that the additional monthly income needed by Romanian employees to relieve financial pressure and feel they are 'getting by' would be between RON 2,000 and RON 3,000 for half of respondents, on top of their current earnings.
At the same time, 28% would need an additional income of between RON 1,000 and RON 1,500 per month, while for 16% a doubling of their current income would be necessary. By contrast, 7% say an extra RON 500 to RON 800 per month would be sufficient to keep up with rising prices.
Asked how prepared they would be for a major and unexpected expense in the near future, only 6.7% said they had a solid emergency fund to rely on.
More than a third (34%) said they have savings, but not substantial enough, meaning they would be quickly depleted, while more than half reported being completely unprepared: 26% would need to borrow money, and 33.3% have no emergency fund and would not know what solution to turn to.
The eJobs survey was conducted in February on a sample of 3,156 respondents, including both job candidates and employees.
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