Over 25% of Romanian employers plan to increase their payrolls during the second quarter of 2015 while only 6% forecast a decrease and 67% estimate no change, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook survey.

As a result, the seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook stands at plus 11%, the strongest since the fourth quarter of 2012.

”The signs of more aggressive hiring activity are becoming observable, both in terms of the gradual, but modest, improvement of the Outlook over the past few quarters, but also in terms of a wider spread of employer confidence across regions, industries and organization sizes,“ says ManpowerGroup Romania’s Country Manager, Valentin Petrof.

The plus 28% Net Employment Outlook in manufacturing is the strongest in the last 10 quarters and has improved by 12 percentage points over the first trimester of 2015.

Transport, storage, and communications have however reported the strongest quarter-on-quarter growth of 15 percentage points. The plus 17% Net Employment outlook in this sector is the most optimistic hiring forecast in the last six years.

The construction sector also shows brighter hiring perspectives. Here, employers report a Net Employment Outlook of plus 16%, strengthening over both the previous quarter and the same quarter in 2014, by 12 and 16 percentage points respectively.

“Opportunities for job seekers will likely grow by varying margins in all but one of the 10 industry sectors,” according to Manpower.

The electricity, gas and water supply industry is the only one reporting a negative Net Employment Outlook of minus 8%, which is considerably weaker both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, by 8 and 12 percentage points respectively.

In regional terms, the most significant improvement, of 18 percentage points, is reported by employers in the South-West, where the biggest city is Timisoara. The Net Employment Outlook stays at plus 14% here, the strongest in more than 3 years.

A significant quarter-on-quarter improvement is also reported in the South region, where almost 30% of employers plan to add to their workforce between April and June.

Employers in micro organizations, with less than employees, are also more optimistic than they been in the past 6 years, reporting a plus 11% Net Employment Outlook.

Employers in small and medium organizations, with 10-49 and 40-249 employees, are also confident, with Outlooks of plus 8%, respectively plus 13%.

In the case of large organizations with over 250 employees, the hiring activity is expected to continue. However, the Outlook remains stable quarter-on-quarter but is with 4 percentage points below the figure reported in the second quarter of 2014.

“Overall, this is the most favorable forecast in the past nine quarters. Not only are employers firmer in their hiring intentions, but also less inclined to decrease payrolls than they have been in Q1,” said Petrof.

The Manpower Employment Outlook survey was conducted between January 14 and January 27 in Romania, on a sample of 626 employers.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com