IT has been, for several years, the field with the most competitive salaries in Romania, given that the national average is 6,000 lei per month, up 10% compared to the beginning of this year. Increased salary thresholds, even for entry-level employees, have made IT the first choice of professional retraining for those looking for a career change.
“IT candidates are known as the privileged few in the recruitment market – they find jobs very easily, they are well paid, and the rapid advancement of technology allows them to constantly have opportunities for growth. This technological advance, as well as the insufficient number of IT specialists, creates the context for them to be highly selective when it comes to employment. With a deficit of approximately 25,000 computer engineers, companies are not only generous in the financial offers they make, but also very open to receiving candidates who have gone through a professional reconversion to this field. Although they start at a junior level, employers are willing to invest further in their specialization at work”, says Roxana Drăghici, Head of Sales at eJobs Romania.
According to Salario data, the eJobs brand salary comparator, the distribution of salary segments shows a marginal allocation for salaries under 2,000 lei (4%) and even those between 2,000 and 3,000 lei (12%). The majority of IT employees, namely 32.6%, earn monthly between 4,000 and 7,000 lei, and 21% between 7,000 and 10,000 lei. Salaries over 10,000 lei are collected by 16.2% of those who entered their salary data in the platform and 14.2% receive between 3,000 and 4,000 lei monthly.
“In many ways, IT is an atypical field. For example, we see highly sought-after specialists who end up occupying key positions in the company and earn salaries comparable to or even higher than that of a CEO. This is the case of IT architects, for example, who can earn 40,000 lei per month. The thresholds are high even for juniors, so entry salaries are around 3,500-4,000 lei per month. As for the average salary for programmers, it is 6,000 lei”, explains Roxana Drăghici.
IT is currently the seventh largest employer in the market, with over 4,000 jobs lost in the last month alone. It is also the area in which employers show the greatest flexibility regarding remote work.
“It is a type of flexibility that we see not only in Romania, but also abroad. In fact, more and more Romanian IT professionals work from the country for foreign employers, just as our companies import specialists from other countries without making their employment conditional on their physical presence in the office”, details Roxana Drăghici.
At the same time, in the last month, 121,000 applications for IT jobs were registered on eJobs.ro, the most active being candidates aged between 25 and 35, followed by those between 36 and 45 and those over 45 years. It is, moreover, the field that attracts the most applications from candidates with career seniority.
The lowest AVERAGE net salaries entered so far by IT employees are for jobs:
• Junior Graphic Designer – 3,000 lei·
• PC technician – 3,500 lei·
• IT Helpdesk – 4,000 lei·
• QA Analyst – 4,000 lei·
• Customer service analyst – 4,000 lei
The cities with the lowest AVERAGE net salaries in IT are:
• Brăila: 2,700 lei·
• Râmnicu Vâlcea: 2,800 lei·
• Alba Iulia: 3,000 lei·
• Târgoviste: 3,000 lei·
• Botoșani: 3,000 lei
Cities with the highest AVERAGE net salaries in IT are:
- Bucharest : 6,500 lei
- Timișoara: 6,000 lei
- Cluj – Napoca: 5,800 lei
- Brașov: 5,500 lei
- Sibiu: 5,500 lei
The highest salary values in this field:
• IT Architect: average net salary at national level – 11,115 lei, maximum salary entered in Salario – 40,000 lei
• CTO: average net salary at national level – 14,000 lei, maximum salary entered in Salario – 36,000 lei
• Product manager: average net salary at national level – 9,000 lei, maximum salary entered in Salario – 25,000 lei
• Senior Project Manager: average net salary at national level – 11,700 lei, maximum salary entered in Salario – 25,000 lei
• Developer: average net salary at national level – 6,000 lei, maximum salary entered in Salario – 22,000 lei.