București-Ilfov, Leading Region in EU at Work Intensity
The work intensity of a household is the ratio of the total number of months that adult household members have worked during the income reference year and the total number of months the same household members theoretically could have worked in the same period. It is defined in levels, ranging from very low (household working time was equal to or less than 20% of the full potential) to very high (working time was more than 85% of the full potential). Generally, the higher the work intensity within a household (the closer people are to full employment), the lower the probability of being at-risk-of-poverty.
In 2023, 8.1% of people younger than 65 in the EU lived in households with very low work intensity. In these households, members of working age worked up to 20% of their total possible work hours over the previous year. The highest shares of people from 0-64 living in households with very low work intensity were recorded in two French outermost regions: Guyane (41.7%) and La Réunion (22.5%). These were followed by Bremen, Germany (21.8%), Prov. Hainaut, Belgium (21.5%), and Campania (21.2%) in Italy.
By contrast, the lowest shares of people living in households with very low work intensity were recorded in Romanian region București-Ilfov (0.7%), Austrian regions Salzburg (0.8%) and Tirol (1.1%), Bratislavský kraj (1.3%) in Slovakia and Romanian Nord-Est region (1.7%).
At country level, as a whole, this percentage ranged from 4.0% or lower in Malta (3.6%), Slovenia (3.8%), Luxembourg (3.9%) and Poland (4.0%) (as one can observe, Romania is not under this threshold) to over 9.0% in France (9.2%), Denmark (9.8%), Germany (9.9%) and Belgium (10.5%).
In 2023, the percentage of the EU population aged 0 to 64 years living in households with very low work intensity was 0.2 percentage points (pp) lower than in 2022, decreasing from 8.3% to 8.1%. The largest decreases were observed in Bulgaria (1.6 pp), Finland (1.5 pp), Hungary and Greece (both 1.2 pp). Increases were observed in 10 EU countries, with the largest in Denmark and Romania (both 1.0 pp), Slovakia (0.8 pp), Portugal (0.7 pp) and Czechia (0.6 pp).
So, we are on the 9th place as a country when it comes to NOT having low work intensity, with the Capital region placed in the best position possible and six Moldavian counties at number 5, but the rest of the country is not so diligent. That reflects in the overall numbers for Romania, together with the following paradox.
While București-Ilfov is in the ten best European regions at GDP/inhabitant, Nord-Est region is more than three times poorer, and stands among the ten last European regions in this respect. From a socio-cultural point of view, that means the main driving forces for the individuals are getting closer to the most advanced Western levels and avoid staying in the surviving mode. Thus, the problem is how to mobilize the rest of the Romanian regions, that have neither the prospective of being relatively rich, neither the impulse to get out of relative poverty.
For positioning in the European context, here is the situation of the employment rate in the EU member states, based on a harmonized methodology for the 20-64 age group. Here, Romania is on the podium of the lowest profile indicators, with 67.1%, slightly better only than Italy (62.7%) and Greece (62.6%).
Very interesting for the contrast and aspirations to reach a Western standard of living, at the other end of the grid there is positioned our “neighbor” in terms of resident population (coming from the opposite direction, but this is another subject, which deserves special attention), the Netherlands, which has exceeded the level of 18 million residents (including Romanians) and has a performance of 81.7% in the employment rate. Well above the European average of 73.1%, for which we would have to mobilize almost 1 million more people to carry out an activity (or almost 2 million if we miraculously managed to reach the level of the Netherlands). Quite bizarre from the perspective of the level of living, which should make us more willing to work than they.
Unfortunately, the evolution of the indicator regarding the households with low work intensity is not good in the last years. After declining from 6.4% in 2016 to 3.5% in 2021, it raised again to 5.2% in 2023, which is a signal that work is becoming less desirable as the level of living raises and other members of the family can bring money home (consistent with the Danish situation).
If this is not the case in the Capital region and in Moldavian counties, then something must be done, mostly in the other regions. Probably, improving conditions of public services, with a clear priority for those holding a job and lowering prolonged social security benefits to stimulate occupation (including pensions, because we have the least percentage of working people receiving old age benefits in EU, only 1.7% compared to 13% European average).
