Migration of labour force in Romania.

Botezatu, Mihai Alexandru ; Botezatu, Elena

1. INTRODUCTION

After 1990, the restructuring process of the Romanian economy has been accompanied by a strong negative impact on the level of employment, causing chronic unemployment. Between 1990-2002 the occupied population decreased by about 2.5 million people, and the occupancy rate decreased by 19.6%, standing at 62.4%.

Romania faces a rapidly ageing population, due to negative natural increase and migration. In 2000, the aged population exceeded the young one, and this trend tends to continue in the future, with negative consequences for the labour market. This demographic pattern tends to follow the West European countries' pattern, but it's development in our country was and is strongly influenced by the dynamics and effectiveness of economic and social reforms (MLFEO, 2006).

The importance and complexity of the structural analysis of labour force and of the market where this is traded comes from the fact that work, unlike other factors, cannot be dealt with strictly from an economic perspective, but only together with its social side (Ciobanu et al. 1999).

The process of economic restructuring has generated significant changes in the occupational structure in Romania: new occupations occurred, and on the other hand, the content of many others suffered changes. In some branches of activity, some occupations began to group together increasing numbers of occupied population, and others have undergone a process of disappearance (Vasile, 2004).

The main factors that generate changes in activities were: adapting to the needs of customers, increased competition and technological reabilitation. Development and expansion of the private sector, the need of companies to stabilize certain segments of the market, led to the development of "aimed at the customer/client" policies and therefore the increase of the role of factors such as "customer needs adaptation" and "increasing competition in the field.

In this paper will be emphasized the main influences that causes labour force migration on national level and abroad having as support MLFEO records for recently past years togheter with governamental measures to balance that migration, depending on national and local needs.

The link between causes and effects, clearly show a national picture about labour force migration in context of integration of Romania in EU, having in mind also the liberalization of labour force market in EU.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

2. LABOUR FORCE INDICATORS

The system of employment indicators have several categories of indicators, which aims to characterize the labor force and the labour market taking into consideration the economic conditions of globalization and the free movement of citizens.

The ability to generate new jobs is the lowest for micro-enterprises. When you look at the capacity of the economy to generate new jobs, from the perspective of the number of jobs newly created, and not from the perspective of the share of operators who have created new jobs in total sample, things are more detailed, and the micro sector, sector that gathers together a low overall share of the population employed (figure 1).

The rate of creating new jobs, defined as the ratio between the number of new jobs created per year and the number of existing employees at the end of the year recorded in 2005 the highest values in the South (11.7% vs. the 5.5 national average), followed at a distance by South--East (7.1% vs. 5.5 national average) and North--East (6.3 vs. 5.5 average). The lowest rates of creating new jobs were registered in Bucharest (3.4% vs. 5.5 national average) and Center (3.8%) (figure 2).

On a sectoral basis, the highest rate of creating new jobs was recorded in constructions (10%--almost double compared to an average of 5.5% nationally), hotels and restaurants (9.4% versus the average national 5.5%)--both sectors using largely seasonal activities--and trade (9.2% versus an average of 5.5%).

This dimension of restructuring process makes any deficiencies in the labour market, such as obstacles to mobility, reduced access to information.

3. REALLOCATION OF THE LABOUR FORCE

The reallocation of labour is closely related to the reform process and therefore is practically unavoidable. Using widely a large number of employees to compensate for low productivity makes the migration of labour from agriculture to industry and services, a process called disindustrialization, to be one of the main objectives of economic restructuring during the transition periods (Dostie et al. 2006).

Secondly, the reallocation of labour is performed by outside labour market, meaning that it can be achieved only through labour mobility, which leaves a business, probably from a declining sector, and finds a new workplace elsewhere, probably in a growing sector.

The skills associated with changes in the work are computer skills, problem solving, resources management and communication. Targeting profit and "client-oriented" services have made certain skills such as "solving problems", "communication" and "resource management" (especially time management) to become increasingly valued at all levels.

Specific excessive qualification is needed for the previous job that now becomes useless, or specific industry rents for the previous job generate harsh adverse effects (Botezatu, 2006).

At least in the context of the transition labour market, restructuring is an issue that regards the industrial composition of an economy. A change in industrial composition will be generally associated with declining state sector and an increase of the number of jobs in the private sector, but in the context of reallocating labour the most important subject is modifying the structure of employment in the sectors of industry.

According to the latest forecasts developed by the National Commission for Prognosis, until 2013-2015 the labour market will experience shortage of labour, of wage earners in particular, which is considered to be covered from two main sources--those who work outside working age and from a second increasing category, manpower from other countries outside EU borders.

4. LABOUR FORCE MIGRATION

Work abroad was a novelty, an innovation in the context of Romanian realities after 1989 and followed the course of any social innovation, with an off period, followed by a maximum social contagion (table 1).

The dominant migration path has changed over time. The changes between the phases are not only regarding the field of migration, but in the volume of departures as well. During pre-Schengen period of time, the intensity of the phenomenon is doubled compared to the stage 1990-1995, and after 2001 the intensity of the phenomenon of migration for work abroad increases three times compared with the previous timeframe.

Departures in order to work abroad are strongly localised. Thus, Moldova is by far the most important exporter of workers abroad, followed by Wallachia and Transylvania, showing small differences regarding intensity of the temporary emigration. West and south-west of the country, through Crisana Maramures, Banat and Oltenia regions.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Research carried out by the authors during the Doctoral studies have topics in the fields "workforce", "competitiveness", "modern management" and the specific interconnections. Significant results will be included in doctoral studies; this paper presents only a few aspects of employment, considered relevant by the authors primarily for management of activities, authors contribution underlying the link between causes and effects and determining measures taken by MLFEO.

In the new context, a series of programs developed by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Equal Opportunities, financed by the European Union, are aimed at preparing the workforce for new types of occupations, new requirements for the jobs, taking into consideration the economic restructuring, the mutations caused in the structure, organization and technology, future research aiming to discover if that measures have the predicet effect the extensive use of information and modern communication technology.

Some of these programs, very suggestively entitled: "Promoting Life Long Learning for qualification and Requalification of Labour Force" and "Active Measures for Employment" are in progress try to meet both employers demands and the demands of those who are searching for a suitable job, being in progress, try to meet both employers demands and the demands of those who are searching for a suitable job.

6. REFERENCES

Botezatu, M.A. (2006). Labour Migration Its Impact On Domestic Economy--The Case Of Romania, Proceedings 2006 International Conference on Commerce, AES, Bucharest, Romania, March 27-29

Ciobanu, A.; Parciog, S. (1999). Background study on employment and labour market in Romania, research report, Availble from: http://www.etf.eu.int/etfweb. nsf/pages/downloadromania Accessed: 2008.05.23

Dostie, B.; Sahn, D. E. (2006). Labor Market Dynamics in Romania during a Period of Economic Liberalization, Cahiers de recherche 06-17, HEC Montreal, Institut d'economie applique

Ministry of Labour, Family and Equal Opportunities (2006)--Employment tendencies for Romanian labour market, for 2010

Vasile, V. (2004). Demographic Changes and Labour Market in Romania, Availble from:www.ier.hitu.ac.jp/pieJapanese/seminar/ workshop040220/Vasile.pdf Accessed: 2008.05.23

Tab. 1. Countries of destination for migration for employment

 Migration timeframe Total

 1990-1995 1996-2001 2002-2006

Italy 8 22 50 40
Spain 2 9 24 18
Germany 7 6 5 5
Hungary 8 9 4 5
Israel 18 17 0 6
Turkey 10 7 1 3
Greece 2 4 2 2
Canada 0 7 1 2
Belgium 5 1 0 1
Russia 5 0 0 1
Others 21 10 9 11
Total % 100 100 100 100
departures Nr 61 107 360 528
Total left 33 81 203 317
Departures/person 1,84 1,32 1,77 1,66

Fig. 2. The rate of creating new jobs in regions

NE 6.3
SE 7.1
S 11.7
SV 5.4
V 5.4
NV 4.2
C 3.8
B 3.4
T 5.5

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Fig. 3. Rate of migration

 1990-1995 1996-2001 2002-2006

Moldova 29 58 28.4
Mintenia 18 43 21.7
TransMania 27 63 19.7
Crisana-Mararrues 16 16 99
Citenia 09 25 93
Banat 09 1.1 78
Dobrogea 07 0.9 28
Bucuresti 18 1.6 28

Note: Table made from bar graph.