Horeca salaries, up 20pct from 2019 in Romania (recruitment platform)

Pay in Romania's Horeca industry have increased by up to 20% since 2019, according to more than half of the representatives of such companies participating in a recent survey, with some instances of average salaries exceeding 4,000 lei, according to data centralised by an online recruitment platform released on Tuesday.

In addition, more than a third of Horeca employers claim that recruitments will increase this autumn.

"The labour market has returned to pre-pandemic levels, and in some areas businesses have surpassed that level. Although Horeca employers continue to have difficulties recruiting, we are optimistic that salaries and benefits, but also the rehabilitation of the industry's image, with its opening to maximum speeds, will again attract candidates to this sector," according to Roxana Draghici, head of sales at eJobs Romania.

As for the benefits that Horeca job seekers can get, they have been diversified in the last year. Almost 60% of employers offer meal vouchers, 32% holiday bonuses, 24% pay for travel and as many offer training to improve knowledge.

According to eJobs, in the full swing of the summer season, employers in the Horeca industry continue to face difficulties when it comes to recruitment.

More than 85% of participants in the most recent eJobs survey say they are currently recruiting, but job seekers are slow to appear.

About 44% of them have up to 5 job openings at the moment, a quarter need up to 10 new employees, and 17% have 20 job openings, despite the fact that the benefits are increasingly diversified, and salaries have increased since 2019, a year similar to 2021 in terms of recruitment needs.

According to the eJobs survey, the Horeca labour shortage causes companies to resort to labour imports, with 23% of them saying they are already using this solution to meet their recruitment needs.

"Employers in Romania have raised the issue of importing employees from abroad since before the pandemic, especially those in Horeca or production. Although in 2020 recruitments of foreign employees were halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the lack of job seekers determined employers to return to this strategy," explains Draghici.

The main reasons why employers face recruitment challenges are the loss of candidates' confidence in Horeca, a sector destabilised over the last year and a half, but also the lack of seekers with relevant experience.

The survey was conducted in July on 102 Horeca company representatives - general managers, human resources managers - and also entrepreneurs.

Launched in 1999, eJobs is the first recruitment platform in Romania and the leader of the local market. In 2012, it became part of the Ringier AG group, an international media company located in Zurich, Switzerland. More than 2 million unique users use the services of the eJobs.ro platform every month, and 7,000 CVs are updated daily.