Romania's wage growth sinks to the single-digit range in January
Informally speaking, the average Joe's take-home pay in Romania climbed a whopping 9.7% year-on-year to a cool 1,070 Euros last January – the slowest annual real surge (+4.7%) since the end of May 2023. You might be wondering what that means, right? Well, it's just Romania Insider telling us that the rising wages ain't as hot as they used to be.
Given the current forecast, wages are expected to lose steam throughout 2025 after shooting up by 4.4% and 7.7% in real terms during the previous two years. And guess what? The government's magical fortune teller predicts a mere 1.6% real increase in the average net wage in 2025, just over the 3% mark. But hey, who's keeping track of such small potatoes, right?
If the government sticks to its guns and maintains steady wages in the public sector through 2025 while trimming some bonuses, all this might just be spot on. Private sector players, on the other hand, are expected to cool their wage rise policies amid economic uncertainty in the coming months.
Fancy a breakdown of the numbers? Last January's average net wage was slightly lower than what folks made in November (no year-end bonus in December, remember?). In the public sector, salaries remained stagnant, with those in public administration taking a 0.5% dip. There was a 2.0% drop in the education sector and a 2.6% rise in the health sector, indicating that overall, the public sector payroll didn't budge.
The tech sector, waving goodbye to the preferential income tax regime, saw a 7.9% drop in wages, and only a 2.2% year-on-year real growth (a 3% decline in real terms). On the bright side, manufacturing wages picked up by 11.4% (6.4% in real terms) to an average of 4,786 lei in January.
As of March 2025, that average net salary jumped by 6.4% month-over-month to a new high of 5,691 lei, with an annual growth rate of 9.8%. However, keep in mind that this growth is projected to slow down over the forecast period as the job market relaxes, and employment growth continues.
Got that? Economy's humming along, wages growin', but not as crazy as before. Just remember not to blow those bonuses all in one place!
iulian@our website(Photo Credit: Aaron Amat/Dreamstime.com)
The slowdown in annual real wage surges and the government's predicted modest wage increase in 2025 might reflect a cooling trend in the wage rise policies within the private sector, signifying a shift in the finance and business landscape of the manufacturing industry. As the employment market eases, this may suggest a potential deceleration in the overall growth of the average net wage.
