Austerity and the Narrowing of Prospects: Education and Employment in Romania
Austerity and the Narrowing of Prospects: Education and Employment in Romania

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the effects of the 2024-2025 fiscal consolidation programme on children and youth in Romania and on the labour market prospects of young people from vulnerable categories. Using Eurostat data and National Institute of Statistics (INS Tempo) time-series on job vacancy rates across public sectors (2015-Q4 2025), alongside existing qualitative research, the article traces how budget reductions in education, social protection, and public employment translate into worsened conditions for those who depend most on public services. Vacancy rates in public administration, health and social assistance, and education contracted by 68-74% from their post-2015 peaks by the end of 2025. Austerity discourages educational participation through rising hidden costs of schooling and through declining perceptions of return on education among families in precarious situations. The analysis draws on the capability approach, precarity theory, and social reproduction frameworks to show that austerity does not merely reduce current welfare but restructures the opportunity pathways of successive cohorts, concentrating disadvantage among those already most vulnerable and widening the gap between them and more advantaged peers. The article concludes with a discussion of targeted policy alternatives and the structural reforms needed to ensure that fiscal adjustment does not reproduce and deepen inequality across generations.

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