Author: Mariana Bălan

Introduction. The level and quality of employment are important parameters for the current society, as the labour force is the main driver for developing any modern economy. In the Strategy “Europe 2020”, the European Union set as goal for the time-horizon 2020 to achieve an employment level of 75% for the European population with ages between 20-64 years. Romania has as objective in the field of employment to achieve a level of 70% by 2020 for the same population segment. Even though Romania is faced currently with the severe issues of unemployment (the unemployment rate for the year 2016 at national level was of 5.9% as compared with the European average of 8.6% according to Eurostat), the activity rate and the employment rate of the working-age population recorded by our country continues to be among the lowest in Europe and at almost 4 percentage points difference against the national goal established for attaining the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Aim of the study. The paper intends a systematic but not comprehensive approach of some consequences of the world crisis, about some main indicators of the labour market at national level, by highlighting the main characteristics of this market: developments, structures, particularities, etc.
Keywords: employment, unemployment, demand, labour force supply
JEL Classification: E24, J21, J23, J42, J82