The termination rate for employment contracts in Romania was 16.4% last year, 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous year. The figure includes both voluntary leaves as well as layoffs.

This figure is slightly above the CEE average (14.9%) and the European average (14.3%), according to the PwC Saratoga 2014 human resources survey.

“Although we see a reduction in termination rate for blue-collar workers, there was an increase in this rate for administrative staff. This highlights the employers’ pressure on the support departments,” said Horatiu Cocheci, Senior Manager, Leader of the Human Resources Consulting Services with PwC Romania.

“Taking into account the decrease in external recruiting rate, from 14.1% to 11.9%, we see the continuation of employers’ efforts to optimize the personnel scheme. The new corporate mantra is ‘do same with less’.”

The highest termination rate was in retail, where about 42% of employees were laid off or left their companies last year. Retail traditionally has a higher than average termination rate.

In the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) sector massive personnel restructuring increased the termination rate to 23.4%, from 15.5% in the previous year. In financial services, the rate was slightly lower, at 17.3%.

On the other hand, in the pharma and industrial production sector, the employee turnover was below the market average.

The work absenteeism rate also increased in Romania to 2.4% of the total number of workers, from 1.5%%. Still, Romania remains below European and CEE average when it comes to work absenteeism.

editor@romania-insider.com