After 27 years of domestic and foreign investments: State institutions remain top employers in more than half of counties

In more than half of Romania’s counties, the state has at least one representative among the top two employers at the county level. Usually, it is the county hospital or, in poor counties, the social assistance directorates.

There is also a third employer category that depends on the state: those who have been supported at least once with funds from the public budget or still receive state subsidies.

The most bizarre situation is in Suceava county, where the Archdiocese of Suceava and Radauti ranks first, with more than 1,800 employees, personnel and non-clerical, according to the statements made by the institution for cursdeguvernare.ro.

We should mention that the state pays the heads of the religious cult, positions assimilated to dignitary functions, as well as the leading positions, as well as part of the priests’ salaries (65% or 80% in case of low-revenue cult units).

Second in this ranking, in Suceava, is Sf Ioan Cel Nou County Hospital, with 1,353 employees, according to the latest data.

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• County             Population       Employees in public sector     Employees in private sector   Largest employer (number of employees)          Second largest employer (number of employees)

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Hospitals, among largest employers

Hospitals should be funded exclusively by the reimbursement of medical services, which is made from the Single National Health Insurance Fund (FNUASS), where the taxpayers’ health contributions are paid.

The tariffs cannot cover, though, all salaries of the medical and non-medical staff, so some of the money is subsidies.

In hospitals that are also university centres, the number of employees is huge, as it also includes many resident doctors. In Iasi, for example, there are approximately 1,000 resident doctors (including pharmacists and dentists).

There are also 75 workers (skilled and unskilled) in charge of the maintenance, about 275 corpsmen, carers, and laundresses.

Therefore, they inevitably appear in top 5 counties, where there are no companies with more than 1,500 employees.

In Vaslui, for example, with only a few employees below Rulmenti company and ranking 3rd, it is the County Hospital and the ranking structure can be reversed anytime if the economy faces problems.

Social assistance directorates, among largest employers in poor counties

County social assistance directorates are among the largest employers, present in top five of poor counties. The explanation is natural because in such counties there are more abandoned children, with or without disabilities, elderly people with problems.

The most flagrant situation is in Vaslui, where the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC) had 2,540 employees in September.

In Botosani county, Formens company ranks second with 1,015 employees but could be overtaken at any time by the local DGASPC, which has more than 1,200 jobs in the organisational structure, of which 1,004 were filled.

In Caras-Severin, where two renowned companies – Combinatul Siderurgic and UCMR – had together about 25,000 employees before 1989, DGASPC ranks fourth in top employers, with the Social Assistance Directorate having 1,033 jobs.

In Vrancea, DGASPC has 1,239 jobs in the organisational structure, slightly below those paid by the largest employer in the county – Artifex.

Other specifications:

• About the hypermarket chains, but not only, the number of employees is counted as the total at the level national, but appears where the company headquarters are located. This is the case with Kaufland, for example, the largest employer in Romania, or Profi, etc.
• For companies, the data generally represent the average number of employees for 2016. Where ranking reversals occurred, thanks to the hiring process of this year, we used the data at the end of October 2017. This is the case of Ford’s advancement in Dolj county, and Continental in Timis. In Timis, Continental hires and managed to overtake Delphi Packard Romania, which had an average of 6,416 employees last year. In Dolj, if it ends the year with a total of 3,900 employees (this year’s recruitment is made for the new EcoSport model), the company will reach the first position among the employers in the county.
• In Caras-Severin, the largest employer is Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze, a Japanese car wiring manufacturer. It is listed with an average of 5,487 employees in 2016, but only slightly more than 2,000 of them work in this county. Most of them, over 3,000, work in Drobeta Turnu Severin (Mehedinti), where the third production unit has recently opened. The factory here is legally only a place of business. If we had not included Bordnetze, the County Hospital would have been on the first position, followed by DGASPC and Vigilant Security would have only ranked third, with an average number of 684 employees in 2016.