The Romanian Government passed on Thursday, June 16, an emergency ordinance that will halt hirings in the public sector institutions, both central and local, until the end of the year. Some positions, however, will be exempted.

The new measure comes with a few caveats. It will not affect ongoing hiring procedures, and in certain “justified” cases, the Government may still approve new hires.

Roughly 22% of this year’s state budget goes to covering personnel costs. The most recent data puts the number of state employees at 1,267,973.

The PNL-PSD-UDMR coalition government has hired an average of 2,304 people every month since taking office, the fastest increase in the last 5 years.

Romania presently has more employees in the public sector than in 2010, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demanded the Government at the time to slash state employees’ wages by 25% to stabilize the economy.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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