The number of legally employed workers reached 4.095 million at the end of January, according to data published by the Labour Ministry, which is the lowest number of employees in 50 years. At present there are twice fewer legally-employed workers than in 1990, when the number of employees was 8.1 million. On the other hand, unemployment has been falling for ten consecutive months, reaching 6.58% in February. How can this be explained?

"I think the number of employees paying contributions is much higher, because it is impossible to have only 4 million employees amid a gainfully employed population of 9 million. People are paid based on special contracts for projects financed with EU funds, based on royalties, based on management contracts and on any other type of fixed-term and temporary contracts that are not included in statistics," said Mihai Şeitan, former Labour Minister until September 2010. In fact, at least 20,000 Romanians have been hired in the past two years to work in projects funded through POSDRU, the EU funding programme for developing human resources.

However, the National Statistics Institute yesterday issued a press release saying that 6 million employees were working in the economy, with the figure including informal workers.

By 2020, Romania's employment rate should reach 70% (Germany's current rate), with the European average currently at 64.6%.

The number of legally employed workers reached 4.095 million at the end of January, according to data published by the Labour Ministry, which is the lowest number of employees in 50 years. At present there are twice fewer legally-employed workers than in 1990, when the number of employees was 8.1 million. On the other hand, unemployment has been falling for ten consecutive months, reaching 6.58% in February. How can this be explained?

"I think the number of employees pay