Top 20 employers to lose 21,000 employees

The top 20 employers in the Romanian economy, which have around 300,000 working for them, will end this year with 21,000 fewer staff, i.e. a 6% decline, according to a ZF analysis. Private companies will lay off at least 18,500 people, while the large state-owned employers plan to make 2,500 redundancies. Out of the seven state-owned companies present among the top 20 employers, only three plan to cut personnel. Electrica, the largest (state-owned), Romanian energy supply and distribution company will operate the toughest restructuring in the state sector, which targets 1,700 employees. Romania’s coal mining company – Compania Nationala a Huilei and brown coal mining company Societatea Nationala a Lignitului Oltenia will lay off 300 and 500 people respectively. Privately held companies will make redundancies this year. Petrom, the largest private employer in the Romanian economy could end this year with 10,370 fewer employees, and reach 22,630 staff, according to the privatisation plan. Personnel cutbacks have also been announced by steel plant ArcelorMittal in Galati (1,700 jobs), telecom operator Romtelecom (500), BCR bank (700) and automotive components manufacturer Draxlmaier (800).