Productive Employment in Romania: A Major Challenge to the Integration into the European Union
Author:Emilia Herman
JEL:O47, J21
DOI:
Keywords:productive employment, integration, inclusive growth, Romania, labour
productivity, working poverty, EU
Abstract:
It is widely accepted that productive employment represents an essential element of
inclusive economic growth, and it can be a driving force in reducing gaps between
countries (especially experienced by productivity and income) in order for these to integrate
into the European Union. The aim of the article is to highlight the process of integration
from the perspective of productive employment and its main determinants, in Romania, in
the period following accession to the EU and integration into the European economic
structures, the 2007-2014 period respectively. The results of this paper highlight a low level
of productive employment in Romania determined mainly by low labour productivity, low
wages, high vulnerable employment, high and inefficient employment in agriculture and a
low level of employment in knowledge-intensive activities. The existence of large gaps, in
terms of productive employment and economic development, between Romania and the
developed EU countries, as well as the existence of the highest in-work poverty risk in EU
emphasizes the need to accelerate productivity growth, which requires a real structural
transformation, a shift from low-productivity sectors to high-productivity sectors. However,
it is very important that poor workers should significantly benefit from the gains in labour
productivity. The findings of this study can be useful for policy makers in order to support the
improvement of productive employment so that productive employment contributes
efficiently to the real integration of Romania into the EU.