Gov’t changed its mind: Romania will receive 100,000 foreign workers in 2024, same as in 2023

By Romania Journal Last updated Jan 8, 2024

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After initially considering increasing the quota of foreign workers to 140,000, the government reconsidered its position and earlier this year approved a new quota of only 100,000 workers from outside the European space, an insufficient number to cover the actual existing need at the moment on the labor market in Romania, warns the Labor Importers’ Association.

According to the website of the National Agency for Employment announces the availability of approximately 38,000 jobs, of which 15% are addressed to people with higher education, and on the other hand there is an unprecedented record of the number of Romanians who have decided to leave the country in the last year, which has generated a massive labor shortage for the Romanian economy.

“Theoretically, the quota approved for 2024 seems sufficient, but in practice it is not. In 2023 alone, 50,000 Romanians left the country, the largest number in the last 30 years, the National Institute of Statistics tells us. Moreover, on August 5, 2023, 64,000 jobs were available on the ANOFM website. With a simple calculation, we are already talking about a total deficit of 114,000 jobs,” said Oana Călin, member of the Labor Importers’ Board of Trustees.

“With a rejection rate in embassies of about 3:1, where one out of four work visa applications is rejected, many times the reasons are in the realm of court action. Due to the lack of staff in the embassies, at the moment, the visas that are issued are for foreigners who obtained work permits in June 2023, in the Romanian Embassy in New Delhi, an embassy that currently serves five countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh , Myanmar and Bhutan. In Sri Lanka the situation is similar; it takes six months to obtain a visa,” warns the Employers’ Association of Labor Importers.

A first solution concerns the agencies in Romania and the need to apply rules in accordance with the requirements of the legislation and of the embassies: the lack of knowledge of the English language at least at the A2 level should lead to the disqualification of the candidate, right from the stage of the selection interview.

Another solution targets the agencies in the country of origin, which are requested to prepare much better, to organize training sessions, depending on the profile of each employer. It is also important that foreign workers are informed from the very beginning about all the details present in the wage offers.

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1 Comment

Panagiotis Spyridis says 8 months ago

This is a quick and cheap (socially) solution. Most of these people will never go back. How about getting EU funds to create meaningful jobs for Romanian repatriation? I can even discuss tapping into the Ukrainian pool of workers for this. Do not dilute your Nation like this!!! We will pay the price shortly.