“Romanians living abroad are hard to convince to return home because of the salaries they obtain in the countries in which they work. We do not know how many of the some 2,300 Romanian have returned from Spain and Italy, after attending the two employment fairs, because such an evaluation is difficult to carry out. Furthermore, we are not prepared to simplify the procedure to bring foreign workers to Romania, as the deficit can in fact be covered by workers from rural areas,” added Pacuraru.
The Minister added that representatives of labor force agencies will go to towns and villages around the country in the period immediately head, to look for workers to be hired by employers in the respective areas. “Most of these are qualified workers, who worked in industry and were made redundant as a result of the restructuring in the 1990s.
It is estimated that the worker deficit in Romania is up to 100,000, half for construction. Pacararu explained that there are sectors in Romania where salaries are the same as abroad. “In the past four years, salaries have doubled, from €220 in 2004, to €460 in 2008,” added the Minister of Labor.
