What the newspapers say: June 11, 2008

Except for the news coming from the Euro 2008 football championship, the stories on Wednesday are all about hard work and beer, two fundamental dimensions of the Romanians (well, some of them work, but over 54% have the beer as favorite drink).

Romania needs construction workers and farmers, Evenimentul Zilei reads. quoting a Manpower study, the newspapers informs that 37% of the Romanian employers say they need to employ more people in the near future. The net employment prediction thus reaches an optimistic level of 26%.

Meanwhile, the trend in Spain has reached negative values (-2%), making it look like the Romanian immigrants will soon have to return home. In Romania, the areas where most employers say they need more employees are the construction works – 50%. Bucharest, central Romania and the North East need new workers the most.

On a global level, the most optimistic employers are India, Singapore, Peru, Poland, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Argentina, Taiwan, Austria, Mexico and Japan.

Speaking of work: the European Union may decrease the maximum amount of working hours from 72 to 60 hours per week, for three months. In Romania, the maximum legal amount of work hours is 48 per week, Cotidianul informs.

Bad news for all blue collars” beer price will grow some 10% this summer, after the price for its ingredients skyrocketed: the hop price grew 300% in the last year, while the malt price increased 35%, Gandul reads.

From the same press conference organized by the Brewers’ Association, Jurnalul National found out that the Euro 2008 championship will lead to an increase in beer sales. The market already grew 9.6%, compared to 2007 and will reach 20.7 million hectoliters at the end of 2008 (1.2 billion euro).

Unfortunately, Romania may not be the best place to enjoy a beer: in a top of the world’s 215 capitals, Bucharest ranked 108, the last but one in Europe (Sofia is the only town where things are worse) on the New York scale of appreciation. The best cities in Europe to live in are Zurich, Vienna, Geneva, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin and Luxembourg.