Barometre: Inflation makes the Romanians to want 1,000 lei more for their salaries

The rise of prices of the latest period has affected the purchasing power of the Romanians, so that, for the largest part of the population, the payment of all expenses, from utilities to installments and food has become a real challenge and the perspectives are not optimistic at all, according to a barometer made by Frames, commissioned by Digital HR.Thus, over 80%of the Romanians say that inflation has affected strongly and only 15% say they managed to deal with the present situation.‘Most issues were connected, for the majority of the interviewees (67%) to the payment of bills for utilities ( gas, energy, rent). The payment of installments with the bank, in the context of rise of interests, represented the second big challenge for the interviewees, and the growth of prices for food was immediately after, with 58% and 43% respectively, the authors of the analysis say.At the top of the challenges generated by inflation, the participants to the analysis ticked, in the order of the number of mentions, rise of prices for fuel (38%), growth of prices for drugs (24%), services (18%) and others (11%). For the majority of the participants (73%) to the barometre, the income has become insufficient, only 18% stating they have money enough to cover all monthly expenses. Approximately 9% refused to answer.Barometre Frames &Digital HR shows that 62% of the interviewees stated they have no financial reserve, 22% have between 1,000 and 2,000 lei and 14% have more than 2,000 lei. Almost 2% did not want to answer.Another question of the barometre Frames & Digital HR aimed at the way in which the Romanians believe they could deal with the growth of prices in the economy, asked about the amount the money they would ask the employers to give them, most said a ‘decent’ sum.Almost 61% of the participants think that a salary increase of about 1,000 lei would cover, at least partly, the expenses generated by inflation. At the same time, 18% ticked the variant 1,000 – 1, 5000 lei, 11% that between 1,500 and 2,000 and 4% ticked the variant over 2,500 lei. Only 3% of the interviewees seem convinced that they would manage with a sum between 500 and 1,000 while only 3% mentioned the variant 100 – 500 lei.Asked what they would do if they could, to increase their income in the context of economic challenges, 43% said they would look for a better paid job, 21% would look for a part-time/collaboration job, 12% would leave the country, and the rest stated they have no solution. Another question of the barometre, focused on the domain of interest of Digital HR aimed at professional retraining.Thus, 48% of the participants stated that they would want to try another job, while 31% stated they are no longer able to do it. Out of those interested to change jobs, 72% would participate in a course of professional training, out of whom 53% would rather prefer a free of charge one and only 27% would pay for a programme for training in a new profession.‘The good news is that we have a larger percentage of participants, against the previous barometre, willing to follow professional training courses, to change their profession as those required by the work force. It is a sign that shows that the Romanians have understood that it is less likely to get to your pension from a job, and if they want to earn more, they have to choose the professions required on the work market, to get specialised’ said Ligia Neacsu, leader of the partnership in the project financed from non-imbursable European funds ‘Digital HR’.The barometre made by the consultancy company Frames, commissioned by Digital HR was made between 7 and 13 March 2022, through online questionaires, by phone and email, on a sample of 300 companies from various domains of activity, from commerce, financial services, agriculture, energy, textiles, IT, etc. The barometer was answered, as a total, 1,217 people.The profile of the participants was represented by the employees with secondary and tertiary education, 58% men and 42% women, aged on average 47.The e-learning platform Digital HR is a project co-financed from the Operational Programme Human Resources 2014 – 2020. The project aims at the increase of participation to programmes of professional training, especially for the people of middle age in the rural environment, with a low level of qualification.   To improve this situation, Digital HR offers eight free of charge training courses from four different domains – Industrial Cyber security, transition to industry 4.0, digital development of products, digital manufacturing of products, marketing, sales, business financing, business plan development. Moreover, they offer consultancy services in career and certificates for the completion of courses.