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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 1 550 lei (about 310 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.

The budget allocated by the National Employment Agency for employment measures have been:

• 970.71 million lei (about 195 million Euro) from the social insurance budget, including 400 million lei from EU funded projects in 2024;
• 876.84 million lei (about 176 million Euro) from the social insurance budget, including 446.10 million lei from EU funded projects in 2023;
• 1 016.28 million lei (about 204 million Euro) from the social insurance budget, including 440 million lei from EU funded projects in 2022.

Due to the form of budgets of public institutions in Romania, it is not possible to determine the amount allocated only for career guidance and counselling services for young people in schools, universities and the information and counselling centres. The National Employment Agency implements the employment programme for marginalised young people and the funding allocation only for this target group have been:

• 2.01 million lei (about 405 000 Euro) in 2024;
• 1.82 million lei (about 366 000 Euro) in 2023;
• 1.69 million lei (about 340 000 Euro) in 2022.

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.