Local companies are willing to pay higher salaries to draw new employees as the unemployment rate in Romania reached a new low in the first half of this year and available workforce is scarce in many sectors.

Over 60% of the employers who participated in a survey carried out by local recruiting platform BestJobs said they plan to open up to 10 new positions in the second half of this year while 21% will open between 10 and 20 positions. Most companies (73%) generally look for 1 to 5 candidates for each open position.

The positions with the highest demand are those in sales, as 63% of the companies are looking for sales people, administrative activities (57%) and production (54%). Most companies (54%) are looking to hire candidates with 2-5 years of experience while 37% are also willing to hire entry-level candidates, with up to two years of experience.

The workforce crisis is also pushing companies to increase the salaries offered to new employees. About 46% of the employers expect to pay up to 10% higher wages for new positions compared to the beginning of this year, 18% of employers believe they need to increase salary packages by 10-20% and 2% are even willing to pay over 20% more compared to the beginning of this year.

Companies are also considering more extra-salary benefits, such as optional pension, holiday vouchers and even massage at the office, to draw new employees.

A total of 682 companies participated in this survey. In the first half of this year, companies posted about 200,000 job ads on the BestJobs platform, almost 60% more compared to the same period of 2017.

Survey: Romanian employers’ Q4 hiring plans, the most optimistic in Europe

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Adobe Stock)