Recruitment and executive search companies are getting more and more CVs from employees in real estate, banks, manufacturing, PR and advertising, who have been affected by streamlining and reorganisation and are willing to work for lower salaries.

"Whereas a year ago we could only find two brazen kids asking for a fixed salary of at least 1,000 euros; who were used to sitting in the showroom and waiting for customers, and thought they were doing a good job, we are now seeing hard-working people come to us who settle for 600 euro salaries and understand that tough times are ahead, so they are willing to stay at the office from morning until evening," says Valentin Ilie, CEO of real estate consultancy firm Coldwell Banker Affiliates of Romania, one of the biggest players that has recently entered the market.

Real estate and banking had been the stars of the salary market until a few months ago, where one could easily earn quite a lot. The aggressive expansion of the banking networks and the real estate transaction fever in recent years had been directly felt by the pockets of those that brokered them. The average salary in a bank, the highest across the entire economy for months on end revolved around 1,000 euros a month. On the other hand, a good real estate consultant would earn 4,000 euros per month and a very good one would earn 10,000 euros a month. Project managers, very few and in high demand from real estate businesses, who would ask for 3,000-4,000 euro salaries have adjusted expectations to what the market has to offer now.

"Project managers are willing to take job offers that pay 1,000 euros even though they were accustomed with high earnings," says Cristina Postolache, general manager of Skill Team, a human resources company.

Recruitment specialists believe this is the beginning of a correction on the workforce market, faced