Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said that measures are needed to encourage growth in the number of employees in the real economy in order to put the economy back on solid footing.

'An important element is to restore the economy on solid footing. This means to have more people in the real economy and, through the measures we take, to encourage having more employees. And we can only achieve this through several measures. I said: raising the early retirement age. It is economically unsustainable and socially unacceptable for people to retire at 48 or 50 with pensions equivalent to salaries, while there are not enough people working in the real economy. The fact that just over half of those between this age and 65 remain active in the economy shows we have a chronic problem that we must correct,' PM Bolojan told a news conference on Friday held at the Victoria Palace.

He added that the measure of reducing the unemployment period is also a necessity, because 'in almost all major cities of Romania there is no one to work with and the private sector is experiencing a serious labor shortage.'

Furthermore, the prime minister pointed out that an important issue which must be solved is the discouragement of unjustified sick leave.

'In one year, the cost of sick leaves is approximately six billion lei, thus, over one billion euros, taking into account that 10 years ago it was half of that amount. It means we have some problems and we must discourage this practice - I am not referring here to those who have a justified reason, a serious illness, but I am referring to the bridges between Christmas and New Year or to elements which anyone who looks at certain statistics can see and which are paid by the employer of the state,' Bolojan said.

Moreover, PM Bolojan underscored that the social spending must be strictly directed towards individuals with low incomes and any overlap of incomes in this area, any form of unjustified support, must be eliminated. AGERPRES (RO - writing by editor: Daniel Florea; EN - writing by: Rodica State)