ABSTRACT
The socialist form of economy was characterised by a particularly high level of concentration of firms in each economic sector. The former socialist system developed barriers to control and reduce the mobility of labour force by offering inexpensive, state-subsidised housing and/or other in-kind benefits in close proximity to the workplace. Further, the mentality inherited from the socialist system, which causing most Romanians to still consider a job to be a lifetime endeavour and professional retraining to be of no value, reduced career mobility. Among the Central Eastern European Countries (CEEC), Romania illustrates an extreme case of poverty with an upsurge of its poverty rate from 1993–1999. The uneven evolution of various economic sectors, as well as the high inflation rates led to increasing differences in the nominal wages between sectors amid widening gaps that induced social discontent and uprisings.
