Austrian companies hired 2,500 Romanians in 2010

More than 2,000 Romanians took on jobs in Austria last year, according to new figures.Romanian online recruiting platform Tjobs reports today (Mon) that around 2,500 people from the Eastern European (EE) country signed work contracts with Austrian firms in 2010. The agency also said that a further 10,500 Romanians applied for jobs in Austria at the same time.More than 138,000 Romanians took on new jobs in foreign countries in 2010, according to the Romanian Times online newspaper. Romanians working abroad are sending home more than five billion Euros per year, the World Bank reported.The platform also found that Great Britain and Germany were the preferred destinations for job-seeking Romanians last year.This fact matches research results of Austrian think tanks which dismissed claims that the country will be “flooded” with jobseekers from EE when a special labour market agreement ends this May.Rightist politicians in Austria have warned that Austria’s economy will suffer from wage-dumping when the seven-year settlement between Austria and the European Union (EU) ends on 1 May 2011. From this date Austria must guarantee that people from Hungary, Slovenia and six other EU members in EE as well as residents of Malta and Cyprus are not discriminated against in any way when they seek work in the country.All these states joined the EU in 2004. A similar agreement affecting people from Bulgaria and Romania will come into effect in 2013. These countries became members of the EU only in 2007.The Austrian labour ministry expects an additional 25,000 workers to come to Austria from EE, Cyprus and Malta per year due to the expiration of the agreement.Around 15,000 of high-skilled EE residents have already moved to Austria for work since their homelands joined the EU due to an exceptions in the agreement between the Austrian government and the EU.Nearly 16,000 Romanians were working in Austria in 2009, up by almost three per cent year on year.Austria and the Netherlands have the lowest unemployment rate among the EU’s 27 members at around 4.8 per cent. Spain is doing worst in this regard as one in every five residents of the country is currently out of work. Romania’s jobless rate ranges around seven per cent.Romania has the second-largest salary gap among all EU member states compared to the average wage level in Austria. Residents of the economically weak country earn just 34 per cent of what Austrians get paid. Only Bulgaria does worse in this regard at 25 per cent).