Trends and Expectations for Development in the Romanian Business Environment. A Focus on Employees’ Related Issues

The present paper aims at exploring the trends and expectations for the development of the Romanian Business Environment, as reported in 2024 by 867 respondents, mainly leaders and managers of the surveyed organizations, active in Romania, in different sectors of activity and regions, both small and middle-sized companies and large ones, as exhibited in the sample distribution table. The focus lies on the estimated development of the labor market/employment situation in the company and its relation with various investments in the company (e.g. digitalization, employees’ development) as well as more general KPIs (such as estimated profitability) and macroeconomic trends (e.g. demand evolution, Romanian economy evolution). Different descriptive statistics and various tests analyzing relations and differences between various groups were deployed and results reveal that the most optimistic estimates (according to mean values) are in the case of profitability evolution and demand forecast, as well as various types of investments (in digital transformation, general business development, employees’ skills). On the other hand, respondents estimate an increase in labor taxation and are not very positive regarding the availability of well-trained workforce within the next 12 months. However, they plan to hire more people and to offer bigger salaries. Significant differences can be observed between companies according to their size: larger ones show a more optimistic approach regarding market and business developments, including bigger investment plans and labor related KPIs development. Surprisingly, a weak positive correlation signals a disconnection between business plans and investments’ forecasts and, on the other hand, the general development of the economy in Romania.