Bucharest, 25 October 2011. Employee return on investment decreased by 12% in Romania in 2010, according to PwC's Saratoga Romania 2011 survey, from 1.53 to 1.34. The indicator measuring the Human Capital Return On Investment shows the pre-tax revenue produced by an employee for every monetary unit (e.g.euro, dollar, or RON) paid out in remuneration. The results of the study were launched in a Human Resource Conference organized by PwC Romania today. "In the context of the current economic environment, most of the Romanian companies witnessed a deterioration of their financial results. Adding to that there was a slight increase of the labour costs, as most companies gave up on the practices of unpaid leave or partial employment, which were widely used during the peak of the crisis. Therefore, Romania's average employee return on investment decreased quite significantly in 2010. This is a worrying sign about Romania's competitiveness and the local companies should focus on strengthening financial results and labour productivity in order to maintain Romania as an attractive investment destination in Central and Eastern Europe", stated Peter de Ruiter, Partner, Tax and Legal Services Leader, PwC Romania. The cost of labour has also increased as a percentage in the overall costs of a company by 10%, from 9.26% of the total costs in 2009, to 10.13% in 2010. However, the costs of labour as a percentage in the overall costs of a company are still low in Romania compared to Western Europe. These evolutions have brought Romania's human capital return on investment (1.34) closer to Central and Eastern Europe's average (1.36), while maintaining a significant advantage in comparison to Western Europe (1.17). "After an almost freeze of the external hiring rate in 2009, Romanian companies have once again started to recruit externally for all positions, with the rate of external re