”To us the high number of unemployed in the economy is an opportunity because now we have plenty to hire from,” Theodor Alexandrescu, chief executive of insurance company AIG Life, told BUSINESS Magazin. To insurers, personnel recruitment had been a very complicated matter until recently, because of the tight competition in the financial sector and the small numbers of specialists available. This year AIG wants to hire new sales agents and now Alexandrescu has plenty to pick from, because there are enough people who have or will lose their jobs. To companies that are not forced by the crisis to operate personnel cutbacks, the high number of unemployed is an opportunity, because it is easier to find the right people at lower costs than before. To others, the fact they have plenty to choose from is a good opportunity to cut their salary budgets, replacing high-salary employees with lower-paid ones.

Besides professional reorientation or development of a small business – the solutions proposed by the authorities, or the possibility to seek a job on a foreign market, the private sector offers a natural way to address the unemployment issue, or at least part of it. Despite the wave of redundancies over the last few months, there are also companies that are hiring especially on the retail market, in the consumer goods industry, outsourcing or financial services. Some are hiring because they are expanding, some are both firing and hiring, and some are consolidating their business and hiring only for certain key positions. The Real hypermarket network set out to hire about 2,000 people, both for the 20 strong- store chain that it operates in the country and for the stores to be opened.

The company is mainly looking for bakers, pastry chefs, confectioners, meat, fish and fresh product specialists and will mostly recruit from among the ranks of the unemployed, says Ramona Toma, manager for recruitment, training and development. She, too, notes the high interest in the job ads, which was not so common back when the economy was doing fine and companies were fighting over employees. ”There is an avalanche of job seekers on the market and we expect it to maintain until the end of the year.” In addition, she says, ”we are seeing a shift from very high paid offers to those that provide security.” In the same business, hypermarket chain Carrefour is hiring 1,200 people this year and the Germans at Rewe approximately 1,800, according to the officials of the two companies quoted by Ziarul Financiar.

Bricostore, one of the biggest players on the DIY market has 250 jobs available in three counties this year where it will open stores (Calarasi, Deva and Drobeta- Turnu-Severin). The service outsourcing market has high hopes for the crisis period: to cut costs, more and more companies are choosing to outsource an entire series of related activities. To outsourcing companies, this is new business and as a result, a need to hire. Easy Call, Accenture, Linea Directa Communication, Wipro and Genpact are but some of them. ”We are interested to integrate candidates that were affected by mass layoff policies, from fields such as banking or financial services. We have already hired a few people in this situation,” Genpact Romania officials told BUSINESS Magazin. As far as Easy Call, a call-centre operator is concerned, the number of employees should go up by 1,000 this year, while Linea Directa Communication will hire, chief executive Dejan Grbic says, about 250 new people.