Florin Jianu, president of IMM Romania: Departures from companies exceed hirings for the first time

Florin Jianu, president of IMM Romania, announced at the conference launching the September 2026 edition of the Newmoney.ro–INSCOP Economic Sentiment Index that, for the first time, the number of employees leaving companies is higher than the number of newly hired employees. According to him, hiring has been halted, the unemployment rate has risen by one percentage point, and numerous employment contracts have been terminated or suspended.

Jianu called for the urgent formation of a legitimate government that would provide stability and confidence to the economic and social environment. He also highlighted Romania’s low level of financial literacy, which ranks last in Europe.

Index data show that 86.1% of Romanians expect prices to rise over the next six months, while 34.7% anticipate a decline in household income. Purchase intentions remain low: only 15.4% are considering buying a car.

Among SMEs, the main challenge has become unfair competition, after inflation ranked first last year. Jianu criticized the state’s failure to pay its debts and the pressure from imported products. At the same time, companies’ digitalization has increased by 100%, but investments in new technologies have been put on hold.