Hiring plans for the third quarter of 2016 have improved in Romania, reaching the strongest level in the past eight years, a Manpower survey showed on June 14.

Employment has already benefitted from Romania’s robust economic growth and improvements on the labour market. Recent data from the statistics office showed that the seasonally-adjusted ILO unemployment rate in the country stayed at 6.4% in April.

Of the 625 employers interviewed, 29% indicated they planned to increase their payroll in July-September, while only 7% forecast a decrease and 64% foresaw no change, the survey showed. This resulted in a seasonally adjusted net employment outlook of +16%, the strongest in the EMEA region, and one of the five strongest across the 43 countries and territories included in the survey.

Employers from eight out of the ten surveyed industrial sectors expect increases in personnel in the third quarter of the year, with the strongest forecast being reported by employers in the manufacturing sector. Employers in the manufacturing sector reported a net employment outlook of +36%.

The weakest hiring plans are forecast by employers in the electricity, gas and water supply sector, but the -2% net employment outlook is still 3pp stronger than in the second quarter of the year.

Staffing levels are expected to grow in all eight regions during the next three months. The strongest hiring intentions are reported in northwest and central Romania.

Large companies employing more than 250 people have reported a net employment outlook of 25%, the strongest in eight years, while employers in small or medium or companies are more cautious, reporting a net employment outlooks of 20% and 10% respectively.