The Territorial Differences of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Romania

Romania, following the abolishment of the communist regime, has entered a new stage of development, not just on a social dimension, but from a political and economic point of view as well, this process being the so called transition. As result, many of the state owned companies have been transferred into the private sector, a process that has closely been followed by the emergence of enterprises established entirely with private capital. The increase of their numbers was anything but linear, with many oscillations correlated with the state of the economy and the changes in the legislation. Furthermore, these changes have taken place at a different pace in the different parts of the country, contributing to the rise of disparities regarding the number and development of SMEs in the whole territory of the country. These property transfers, besides the aspects mentioned earlier, have dramatically influenced the number of the occupied population, resulting – around the middle of the nineties – in the increasing rate of unemployment, which has gradually started to decrease due to new jobs created by newly established private firms, but also because of the way the Romanian State keeps evidence of the unemployed people. This study will mainly concentrate on analyzing the changes that have taken place in the last years as regards the number of SMEs in Romania, on measuring inequalities in the different areas of the country from this point of view, as well as their trend and their effect on occupying the country’s workforce.