Press Review - August 3, 2017

08.03.2017 By Oana Gavrila

Education Minister Wants to Hire High School Graduate as Adviser

Education minister Liviu Pop wants to hire a high school graduate, already admitted to a university, as an adviser on his team.

The adviser would act as a liaison between the ministry and the national student board.

The future adviser would work two hours a day to have time to attend university classes.

The education minister expects resumes sent to his e-mail address, liviu.pop@edu.gov.ro, by Friday, 4 pm.

Parents Want Video Cameras in Schools Year Round, Not Just at Exams

The national federation of parents wants video cameras in classrooms to be on throughout the school year, not just during national exams.

Parents say the measure would reduce violence in schools but teachers' unions raised the issue of intellectual property theft.

“In urban areas, there are surveillance cameras in schools. There are cameras in classrooms as well but, sadly, those are not on. These recordings would be used as evidence in concrete cases,” said parent federation president Iulian Cristache.

On the other hand, teachers' unions raised the issue of potential intellectual theft and said teachers would have to agree to have their classes videotaped, but did not reject the proposition outright, agreeing that the move could help tackle violence.

According to data centralized by the Ministry of Education, there are 19,000 cases of violence in schools each year. Their number is, however, believed to be higher, as many cases go unreported.

Romanians Working Abroad Raise Demand for Construction Materials

As many Romanians working abroad return to the country for summer break, they raise demand for construction materials, which drove workmanship and energy costs up and led to price increases of up to 30% for construction materials.

Demand is fueled by developers relaunching real estate projects and the fact that Romanians working abroad come back to invest in home improvement.

On the other hand, the minimum wage in Romania increased in the first half of the year, raising labor and production costs. All these factors led to price increases of 5% to 30% for construction materials such as concrete, rebar, metal sheeting, steelwork, as well as furniture and woodwork.

Employee Numbers Reached Record Level of Past 20 Years

Romanian employers created 113,000 new jobs in the first five months of the year and the number of employees reached a record of the past almost 20 years, with  4.846 million employees in May, statistical data showed.

The manufacturing industry, which includes large auto parts makers, created 25% of those new jobs this year, while the construction sector and the tourism industry are the next largest employers.

The construction sector employed 13,600 more people since the beginning of the year, followed by the hospitality industry, which hired 13,400 new employees.

Industrial Producer Prices Down 0.1% on Month in June, Up 2.5% on Year

Romania’s industrial producer price index decreased 0.1% in June compared with May after a 0.1% drop the previous month, the country’s statistics board said Wednesday.

Prices of intermediary goods grew 0.3% on the month in June, capital goods grew 0.3%, consumer goods grew 0.2%, and durable goods grew 0.3%. On the downside, energy prices fell 1.2%, the data showed.

Compared with June 2016, Romanian industrial producer prices grew 2.5%.