Social protection of labour in Romania

Social protection of labour represents a fundamental aspect of social policies of any state or nation, as its implementation aims at preventing, reducing or eliminating the consequences of events, considered as social risks, on the standard of living of the population. At EU level, the labour market continued to be characterized by economic and financial crisis, slight fluctuations being reported. The present paper provides a statistical analysis of the evolution of the number of unemployed people and the unemployment rate both in Romania, and in EU, in 2012, compared to 2011. In Romania, although both the number of the unemployed and the rate of unemployment fell steadily during the first six months of 2012, as a direct result of employment measures initiated by the state institutions, since July 2012, unemployment, expressed both in relative figures and in absolute figures, has shown an increasing trend, indicating a major sensitivity of the labour market for the future.