Moldova is hit by a deep crisis and unemployment

Moldova is experiencing the toughest moments since the last ten years. Even if the negotiations with the European Union advance, the Moldovans live worse every day. Due to high prices on food, the people cannot afford to have a decent life. The employees have low incomes and it’s almost impossible to pay the utilities and buy enough food for one month.

Ludmila, 28 years-old, is a social worker at a residential home in the second largest city of Moldova, Balti. She works with mentally-challenged children and spends 9 hours a day with them. She is divorced and has a child who goes to the kindergarten. She needs good financial resources in order to support her daughter. Ludmila receives a package with food from her mother every weekend, so she won’t starve. Being single is hard for her because she is being paid only 860 lei ($72) per month.

In the last three months, the prices on food, transportation and utilities went up by more than 50%. The bread was 2.50 lei and during the last month it was marked up twice, and the final price rose to 3.80 lei for a loaf. The price of the “round bread” rose from 3.50 lei to 5 lei. The price on natural gas is getting more expensive every semester; the fuel became ridiculously expensive due to prices imposed by the foreign exporters. A liter of regular gas is 1 Euro ($1.38), these prices being the highest in the Moldovan history.

There is a job crisis in Moldova. The people are desperate about finding a job, no matter how much the employers are willing to offer. Most of them don’t want to call out if the employer cuts their salaries with no reason. They say: “If you don’t like it, you can resign right now and there are plenty of people behind who wait for that job!” And this statement is right, because there so many people who are willing to work and cannot find a job. It’s hard, especially that every employer would use the financial crisis as a reason of not paying enough money to be able to live decent.
A person who doesn’t have a house and rents an apartment would have to pay at least $100/month for rent, and another couple hundreds of dollars for utilities. Having a salary of $100 a month (the most people do), is not enough for living.

If you’re analyzing the sources of income of the Moldovans, you’ll learn that most of the financial resources are coming from abroad, some family members working and sending money at home. In almost every second family from Moldova there is at least one person who works in another country, especially in the former Soviet countries where the Moldovans are not required to have a visa. Most of them work in constructions in Russia and Ukraine. Many women work in Turkey, Italy, Spain or Portugal, but in these cases they need a visa. Because of this need, many Moldovans apply for a Romanian passport which allows them the possibility to freely work in the European Union countries.

The Moldovans are very pessimistic about the things getting better in the country by the end of the year. Many say that Moldova will live tougher moments this year, according to what’s going on in the country right now.
The Republic of Moldova still has a political instability since April 2009. After 8 elections, the country doesn’t have a president.