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Unemployment Insurance in EU->Romania
Unemployment insurance in Romania
This article gives details of the benefits to which you are entitled in Romania if you involuntarily lose your job or if you do not find a job within 60 days after graduating from an educational institution.
The benefit described is unemployment benefit (indemnizație de șomaj).
In what situation can I claim?
The following categories of persons can be insured for unemployment benefit:
- Romanian citizens who are employed or who earn incomes in Romania
- Romanian citizens working abroad
- Foreign citizens or stateless persons who for the period they have their domicile or residence in Romania are employed or earn incomes
Pensioners who have a job are not covered.
The regime is compulsory for all employees, except in-work pensioners. This includes employees whose salaries come from Romanian employers and employers from EU/EEA or Switzerland, provided that Romanian legislation is applied to income from outside Romania; and employees who reside in Romania and whose employers are in countries not covered by European social security legislation. Other categories (civil servants, persons in elective positions, NGO members, cooperative members and administrators) are also compulsorily insured.
The following categories of persons who live or are resident in Romania can voluntarily insure themselves for unemployment benefit:
- Sole associates, associates, administrators, registered sole traders, entrepreneurs as natural persons owning individual enterprises, members of family association
- Romanian citizens working abroad, not covered by the compulsory regime
- Persons who generate income from activities carried out according to the law and who are not in one of the above mentioned situations
The unemployment insurance contract for the above categories of persons must be concluded with the employment agency in the jurisdiction of which they have their domicile or residence.
What conditions do I need to meet?
To be able to receive unemployment benefit (indemnizație de șomaj), you must meet the following compulsory conditions:
- you live or are legally resident in Romania
- you are involuntarily jobless
- you have no income or your income from authorised activities according to the law is below the value of the reference social indicator (RSI)
- you are fit to work
- you are aged between 16 and the statutory retirement age
- you are available to be recruited and actively seeking a job
- you are registered at one of the territorial Agencies for Employment in whose jurisdiction you have the domicile or as the case may be the residence if you had your last job or you earned incomes in that residence locality
- you apply for unemployment benefit within 12 months after your employment, service, agency, etc. relationship ended
In addition, jobseekers who are registered at the territorial employment agency must have contributed to the unemployment insurance system for at least 12 of the 24 months preceding the time when they apply for unemployment benefit.
This condition does not apply to graduates of an educational institution (or of a special school for persons with disabilities) who are aged at least 16 and have been unable to find work that corresponds to their vocational training within 60 days after the date they graduated (temporary criterion valid only for the first category of graduates).
What am I entitled to and how can I claim?
Unemployment benefit is calculated on the basis of the value of the reference social indicator (RSI), the income of the person who holds unemployment insurance, and the period for which they contributed to the unemployment insurance system.
The value of the RSI is RON 598.019 from 1st March 2023.
The amount of unemployment benefit is paid on a monthly basis as follows:
| Contribution period | Type of unemployed person | Percentage of RSI | Monthly benefit |
| At least 1 year | Person who is insured under the unemployment insurance system | 100% | RON 598 |
| Not applicable | Graduate | 50% | RON 299 |
The cash benefit increases if the unemployed person has contributed to the unemployment insurance system for at least 3 years. A certain percentage calculated on the basis of the average gross monthly income earned over the previous 12 months of contributions is added to unemployment benefit as follows:
| Contribution period | Percentage added |
| 3-4 years | 3% |
| 5-9 years | 5% |
| 10-19 years | 7% |
| Over 20 years or more | 10% |
Unemployment benefit is paid every month, for a period of between 6 and 12 months, according to the length of the completed period of contributions to the unemployment insurance system as follows:
- 6 months for the persons that contributed at least 1 year
- 9 months for the persons that contributed at least 5 years
- 12 months for the persons that contributed at least 10 years
Graduates aged over 16 who do not find a job within 60 days after graduating from an educational institution receive unemployment benefit for 6 months.
Payment of unemployment benefit ends, among other situations, on the date the unemployed unjustifiably rejects a job that corresponds to their level of education, or on the date the recipient leaves the country for a period longer than 3 months.
Payment of unemployment benefit is suspended, among other situations, where the recipients fail to attend, on a monthly basis or whenever requested, the employment agency at which they are registered in order to receive assistance in finding work.
To receive unemployment benefit, you must apply to your local employment agency within 12 months after your employment, service, agency, etc. relationship ended.
Unemployment benefit is paid through banks or post offices.
It is not subject to the income tax system.
Jargon busters
- Reference social indicator: unit expressed in lei on the basis of which allowances and other benefits for unemployment are calculated. Its value may be changed by decision of the government, according to the consumer price growth index forecast for the year related to the consumer price growth index of the previous year.
- Unemployment benefit: a partial compensation for the insured person's income as a result of loss of their job or for the income of the graduates of educational institutions who have not been able to find a job.
- Contribution period: the period during which a person is compulsorily or voluntarily insured under the unemployment insurance scheme.
- Insured persons: a person who earns income, according to the law, and is compulsorily or voluntarily insured under the unemployment insurance scheme.
Forms you may need to fill in
Know your rights
The links below give more information about your rights and obligations.
- Conditions for unemployed
- Information about Unemployment benefit
- Unemployment benefits for graduates
Who do you need to contact?
This page was last updated in 2024.
- Unemployment insurance in Europe →
Unemployment Insurance in Romania
You might also be interested in:
⇒EU social security coordination
⇒Unemployment Insurance in the Nordic countries
Key points of EU Unemployment Insurance coordination
- Transferring periods of work and insurance between EEA countries As an EU citizen you can transfer acquired rights from Unemployment Insurance when moving between EU/EEA contries. In this way it may be easier to become entitled to unemployment benefit in the country you move to.
In the vast majority of the Member states the aggregation rule become fully applicable as soon as you starts to work in the country. However in Denmark, Belgium and Finland you must work some period there before you can use the aggregation rule.
You need a PD U1 document in the country you leave or if the involved countries use electronically exhange (EESSI) there will be issued a SED U002. The countries who issues the highest number of PD U1 documents are Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The countries who receives most PD U1 documents are Lithuania and Italy. - Transferring unemployment benefits Under certain conditions you can go to another EU country to look for work and continue to receive your unemployment benefits from the country where you became unemployed. The period you can export your unemployment benefits varies from 3 to 6 months in the different Member states.
You have to apply for a PD U2 document in the country you leave, or if you haven't done that the institution in the receiving country must request a SED U008 from the competent institution in your last country.
The countries who issues the highest number of PD U2 documents are Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Poland is the country who receives by far most PD U2 documents. - Unemployment benefits coverage According to OECD the net replacement of income after 2 months of unemployment, for a single person without children whose previous in-work earnings were 67% of the average wage varies from 33 percent (Ireland) to 91 percent (Belgium). Read more here..
- Having residence in another EU country than where you work? According to EU social security coordination rules you must only be insured against unemployment in one country at a time. As a generel rule this country is where you work.
In Member states who have compulsory insurance, you will automatically be covered when you start working there.
However you may be insured by your country of residence if you are posted to a EU/EEA country or work in two or more EU/EEA countries at a time. In these situations you can not your self decide where to have unemployment Insurance, but you (or your employer) must apply for a PD A1 document which states in which country you are covered by social security, including Unemployment Insurance. Special rule also apply for cross-border workers ("frontier workers"). - Third-country Nationals working in EU/EEANON-EEA citizens are covered by Unemployment Insurance in the EU countries who have compulsory Unemployment Insurance. In countries with voluntary Unemployment Insurance (Denmark, Sweden and Finland) third-country nationals can become member of an Unemployment Insurance Fund.
In the most countries Third-country nationals can also use the EU Coordination rules when moving within EU/EEA (however not in Denmark, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
Third-country nationals in short-tem working relations often faces problems with actually get Unemployment benefits, even though they have contributed to the system. This is due to the fact that one normally need a residence permit which allow one to take any job, and also because of a qualifying period in most countries between 6-12 months.