Romanians in multinationals are more profitable than Western Europeans

Each Romanian employee in a multinational generated an annual gross profit of 5,898 euros in 2009 to foreign investors, surprisingly nearly 8% higher than that generated by a Western European employee, shows a survey conducted by audit and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Romania. In the preceding year, the annual gross profit per employee had been 2.910 euros, but the redundancies led to a profit increase. The results are unexpected, considering that the GDP per capita in Germany, for instance, is four times as high as in Romania.
“Companies get a higher return on human capital as compared with the pre-crisis period, but this does not mean employee productivity has risen. Return on human capital in Romania went up 20% against 2008 because labour costs are over 50% lower than the European average,” said Peter de Ruiter, partner and leader of the fiscal and legal consulting department of PwC.
Each Romanian employee in a multinational generated a 102% higher gross profit against 2008.
The survey involved 58 companies of which 76% are privately held foreign companies. Nearly half of them have at least 1,000 employees and revenues above 100 million euros.