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1. Youth employment measures

2. Flexicurity measures focusing on young people

3. Reconciliation of private and working life for young people

4. Funding of existing schemes/initiatives

5. Quality assurance

Youth employment measures

The main policy measures for youth employment, according to the law on employment and unemployment, law no. 76/2002, includes:

• young unemployed graduates (from secondary or tertiary education) have the right to an employment bonus of 1 000 lei (about 210 Euro)
• employers of young unemployed graduates (from secondary or tertiary education) have the right to a monthly state subsidy of 2 250 lei (about 473 Euro) for l2 months
• employers of young NEETs have the right to a state subsidy of 2 250 lei (about 473 Euro)/month for a minimum 12 months of employment.
• employers of young unemployed vulnerable persons have the right to receive a subsidy equal to the salary of the young persons. The young people in vulnerable situations also benefit from additional information and counselling services.
• employers of school or university students during school holidays have the right to a monthly state subsidy of 250 lei (about 55 Euro) for the employment period
• all unemployed persons (including young people) that are employed at more than 50 kilometres from their home have the right a mobility bonus of about 15 500 lei (about 3 300 Euro)
• all unemployed persons (including young people) that change their residence in order to find a job have the right a mobility bonus of about 12 000 lei (about 2 500 Euro)
• competences evaluation centres can access funding and provide free competences and skill evaluations to young people.

All these measures have been included in the  Youth Guarantee national scheme and in some cases allocation and subsidies have been raised as a result of the streamlining of youth in employment policies as part of the Youth Guarantee scheme.

No direct job-creation schemes are implemented in Romania.

Flexicurity measures focusing on young people

There are no flexicurity measures focusing on young people implemented in Romania. However, there are important existing flexicurity measures beneficial for young people:

• "tele-working" (working from other places than the employers’ premises, using ITC) is allowed and regulated since 2018 (through Law no. 81/2018);
• a maternity leave is granted to mothers for a total of 126 days (in total) before and after the birth of a child;
• a short leave is granted to the fathers after the birth of a child;
• a leave for childcare is granted to parents that can decide on how to share the time and it can last up to two years, thus encouraging young families. The leave for childcare can be three years long in the case of children with disabilities;
• a short leave is granted to one of the parents in the case of a seek child or for medical investigations of a child.

Reconciliation of private and working life for young people

Young people under 18 have the right to a shorter working time than older persons, namely six instead of eight hours a day, and cannot be employed for night work, according to the Labour code.

Funding of existing schemes/initiatives

Funding for integration policy measures provided by the public employment services is ensured by a special budgetary fund of social insurance. It is impossible to separate the value of funding for the integration on the labour market of young people from the total budget of the National Employment Agency for active employment measures. According to the National Employment Agency reports for 2018, the total amount allocated for employment measures have been over 8 629 000 lei in 2018, with 77,22% expenditures actually made. The amount grew from 178 million lei (up to 40 million Euro) used in 2012 for the same measures, according to the 2012 annual report of the NEA to 273 million lei (about 60 million Euro) in 2016 and over 238 milion lei (about 51 million Euro) in 2017, according to the annual report, but was reduced to less than 2 million Euro in 2018.

This budget reduction can be compensated by the European Social Fund projects supported by the Operational Programme Human Capital:

• in 2018, the project ACTIMOB 1 suported registration and support for young NEETs with a budget of 2 112 246 lei (about 470 000 Euro)
• in 2018-2021, the project ACTIMOB 2 supports suported registration and support for young NEETs with a budget of 227 783 035 lei (over 49 500 000 Euro)
• in 2018-2022, the project UNIT 2 RMD supports the trainship and apprenticeship of young NEETs in Bucharest and Ilfov region with 6 053 956 lei (about 1 270 000 Euro) and project UNIT 2 RMPD supports the trainship and internship of young NEETs in less developed regions with 38 629 300 lei (over 8 115 000 Euro)
• since 2019, the project UNIT 5 RMD & RMPD supports the trainship and apprenticeship of young NEETs with about 76 million Euro
• in 2017-2019, the project ACTIMOB NEETs supported registration and support for young NEETs with a budget of 40 866 509 Euro
• in 2019-2021, the project ACTIMOB 3 supported registration and support for young NEETs with a budget of 57 126 603 Euro Euro.

Quality assurance

The Labour inspection is in charge with ensuring the quality of working conditions and contracts and it is also checking the conditions meet by employees in order to receive subsidies for the integration of young people. It is a specialized body of the central public administration subordinated to the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity. The institution shall ensure the exercise of control in the areas of labour relations, occupational safety and health and market surveillance.