Economic troubles left over 50,000 people without a job in the private sector in October and November

Companies in 30 counties across Romania have cut some 50,000 jobs since the beginning of October due to the economic crisis and the number of unemployed people in the private sector increased to 150,000, the National Council of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises president Ovidiu Nicolescu declared.

He added that the unemployment rates doubled in the two months. Also, the market is characterized by a freeze of investments and a significant decrease of exports, Nicolescu said, quoted by Romanian news agency NewsIn.

He emphasized that the new government needs to offer incentives for more people to seek European funds and subsidize the interests in credits contracted by small and medium enterprises. Nicolescu said that the most affected regions are in North Moldova, where private unemployment rates reach 4%.

Almost 3 quarters of Romania’s employees work in the private sector which counts for some 3.7 million people. Labor minister Mariana Campeanu declared on Friday that the number of unemployed could increase to 34,000 in May 2009 – double the numbers forecast in early November for late 2008, of 17,000 people.

The most affected sectors are the textile industry, constructions, agriculture and the automobile industry.