The Roma population continues to face low access to the labor market. The EU-MIDIS II report35 (2016) finds that only one in four Roma aged 16 or over were "employed" or "self-employed" at the time of the survey. Roma women reported much lower employment rates than Roma men – 16% compared to 34%.
Overall, the survey shows that paid employment rates for Roma aged 20-64 are 43%, which is well below the EU average of 70% in 2015.
The situation for young people is much worse: on average, 631 TP2T of Roma aged 16-24 were neither employed nor participating in any form of education or training at the time of the survey, compared to the EU average of 12% for the same age group. For this age group, the results also show a considerable gap between women and men, with the percentage of young Roma not in employment and not enrolled in education or training programs being 72%, compared to 55% for men.

The report of the civil society monitoring the implementation of the national strategy for the integration of Roma in Romania, Evaluation of progress in the key areas of the strategy, carried out in 2018, presenting a comparative analysis for the period 2012-2018, reveals interesting developments from the perspective of the employment situation of Roma, in dynamics, but also from the perspective of comparison with the situation of the majority households, in the sense of the significant increase in the share of salaried employment in Roma households.

The Guaranteed Minimum Income – VMG is identified as a source of income in 1% among households in the majority sample (increased by 1 percent, compared to 2012) and in 10% among households in the Roma sample (here the increase is 8 percent). In the case of self-employed non-agricultural activities, the share of income sources in the economy increases, and the Roma-Romanian difference increases significantly (from 3 to 5 percentage points).

Work abroad is identified as a source of income to a significantly greater extent in 2018, compared to 2012, in the general sample the increase being from 1 to 2%, and in the Roma sample, from 3 to 5%. This situation is correlated with the share of households in which there is external migration - this share is 29% in the case of the Roma sample, compared to 18% in the sample of the majority population.

Regarding households with children whose parents are away working abroad, this percentage is 10% in the case of Roma and only 4% in the case of the general population sample. Even if the employment situation of the Roma has seen some improvement, on certain components, the share of occasional sources of income increases, on the two types of samples previously mentioned, and the share of households with no sources of income and those receiving social assistance increases, in the case of Roma households . It also significantly increases the importance of money received from abroad in the economy of the sources of income of Roma households.

The share of Roma among the total working population is increasing, so the participation of Roma in the labor market is essential to support the related rising national costs, especially those related to pensions and health. This deficit situation represents an economic cost to society as a whole, through the wastage of precious human capital and the loss of labor productivity. At the level of Romania, from the estimates of the World Bank, it emerges that 887 million euros are lost annually, due to the lack of opportunities to manifest the economic potential that the Roma population can provide, respectively due to the insufficient capitalization of productivity and, implicitly, of the associated tax contributions .

At the present moment, the socio-economic dimension of the insertion of Roma in the labor market is not addressed either according to the specific needs of Roma at the level of communities and social typologies, nor in relation to the skills and qualifications demanded by the labor market.

In poor communities, not only the population is chronically poor, but also the economic potential – economic agents and means of production – of the community and community infrastructure are deficient. About 60% of the total of rural Roma communities are poor, in contrast to urban Roma communities, which have a relatively more educated, but still poorly qualified workforce.

The accumulation of characteristics associated with employment risks leads to a noticeable decrease in the chances of employment in paid work. Young Roma from rural areas and Roma women have significantly lower chances of being employed in the formal economy.

Action directions Employment

• The development and valorization of the human capital that comes from the Roma communities through programs adapted and permanently addressed to the profile of the communities and specific from a socio-cultural and regional point of view
• The valorization of human capital, with an emphasis on young people and women of Roma ethnicity in rural areas, by establishing multifunctional centers and improving the methods of inter-institutional intervention with priority in rural communities, developing standardized work tools and unitary methodologies
• Stimulating the placement of Roma people on the labor market through National Entrepreneurship and Social Economy Programs