The role of small and medium enterprises in improving employment and in the post-crisis resumption of economic growth in Romania

In the European Union, the Europe 2020 strategy seeks to obtain a smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth that ensures high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. On the other hand, Europe 2020 strategy also supports the overcoming of the current economic crisis, which has caused and continues to cause effects in various sectors of the economy. In this context, the system of companies represents the "heart" of this strategy of growth of the European economy. Encouraging the SME sector is an important concern at European Union level, considering that SMEs are key drivers for economic recovery. The paper focuses on SMEs because at European Union level they accounted for 99.8% of total non-financial businesses. The crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of these enterprises, and of all the problems facing this system, we will focus on the one that targets the impact of the crisis on the active population of SMEs in Romania, compared with the European Union

Public policies targeting labour market rigidities

Labour market rigidity becomes an issue of increasing importance under conditions of shocks associated with the economic crisis due to the need to increase the adaptability and responsiveness to them. Thus, labour market policies must be directed towards mitigating rigidities caused by institutional or demographic factors or certain mismatch between demand and supply of education qualifications. This paper highlights the major role of the active labour market policies targeting the increase of labour flexibility, stressing the importance and impact on the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to macroeconomic shocks. Located on a declining trend in the years preceding the crisis, spending on labour market policies increased in 2009 in all the Member States of the European Union. Spending differences are significant between countries, Romania being at the lowest end of the European Union. This requires special attention because the increased adaptability of workers through training, as active measure, is of major importance considering the increased speed of changes in the labour market