Top global companies such as Oracle, the world’s largest enterprise software company, the Freescale Semiconductor and Infineon Technologies semiconductor producers, the Microcip semiconductor components producer, and Ixia, leading provider of performance test systems for IP-based infrastructure and services, chose Romania after 2000 to open research and development centers due to the large number of IT specialists available on the market and the relatively low labor cost. But things have changed once Romania joined the European Union in 2007. “The coming to Romania of many IT companies in the past years lead to a saturation of the human resources market and an artificial increase in salaries. For the coming years, we estimate ever increasing gaps on several specialist levels and categories, including IT&C,” Country VP Managing Director of Oracle Romania, Stefan Cojocaru, told Business Standard.
He added the problem will not be cost-related in the coming years as these will undoubtedly increase, but will be about the quality of training specialists, who expect to earn salaries surpassing their training level. “The gap between salaries in Romania and those abroad is getting narrower and, in two-three years, this difference will not be a criterion,” Managing Director of Microchip Technology, Constantin Ilas, told Business Standard. He added the amount that a U.S. company could save by coming to Romania is only justified if its results are very good. In his opinion, labor costs are lower in Romania than in most Western European countries and the United States.
“Salaries are not that low. They are lower than in Germany but the main argument for coming here was people’s knowledge,” said Managing Director and Vice President of Infineon Technologies Romania, Thomas Simonis. “We have to give up the idea that centers with thousands of programmers can be built in Romania; it is totally unrealistic,” said Country Manager & Director of Freescale Romania, Adrian Purcarea.
Salaries
According to market data, the salaries of Romanian IT experts range between €500-2,000, considering that the average net salary in Romania amounted to RON 1,040 (some €306) in July 2007, according to the National Institute of Statistics.
