A quarter of Romanian employers plan to increase their payrolls in the third quarter of 2015 while 11% forecast a decrease, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook survey. As a result, the seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook stands at plus 7%, 2 percentage points lower both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.

However, the staffing levels are expected to rise by various degrees in nine of ten industry sectors and seven of Romania's eight regions in the next three months.

“The market is more dynamic than in previous quarters, with more than one-third of employers foreseeing some change to the size of their workforce, and only 62% anticipating no changes. Much of the activity will be positive, as one in four employers intend to add to their payrolls, but a fair level of regional and industry level differences continue to persist,” said Valentin Petrof, ManpowerGroup Romania’s Country Manager.

Employers in manufacturing have been the most optimistic about growth in payrolls in all but one of the previous ten quarters. With a plus 19% Net Employment Outlook for the third quarter, they continue to anticipate steady hiring activity between July and September. However, the hiring intentions are 7 percentage points weaker than in the second quarter.

The employers in wholesale and retail trade register the highest decline of 13 percentage points. In this case, the Net Employment Outlook stands at plus 9%, down from 22% in the second quarter.

According to the report, hiring intentions have weakened quarter-on-quarter in eight of the ten industry sectors, remained stable in one, and increased by a small margin in the tenth. Perspectives are positive in general, except for the electricity, gas & water supply sector where the Outlook is minus 8% for the second consecutive quarter.

In regional terms, hiring intentions have also weekend from the last quarter, by as much as 23 percentage points in the North-east region and 18 percentage points in the South. Employers in the Center region strengthened their forecast over Q2 by 1 percentage point, from 13% to 14%.

Employers in the West region are the most optimistic, with a Net Employment Outlook of plus 21%. Moderate hiring intentions are reported for the North-East region, where the Outlook stands at plus 8%, and for the Bucharest and Ilfov region, where the Outlook stands at plus 7%.

Employers in large and medium organizations are the most likely to anticipate growth in payrolls, reporting Outlooks of plus 15% and plus 12%, respectively. In the case of employers in small organizations, the Net Employment Outlook stands at plus 5%, 3 percentage points weaker quarter-on-quarter.

Anticipated hiring activity in companies with under 10 employees has slowed down by a considerable 9 percentage points, when compared to Q2 2015. The Outlook is now flat, at 0%.

The Manpower Employment Outlook survey was conducted between April 15 and April 28 in Romania, on a sample of 625 employers.

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