This is not a tally of workers. Eurostat sets the 2021 reference level at 100, so the index tracks changes in employment across wholesale, retail and the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; it does not show how many people the sector employs.
The international comparison is striking. Romania’s index was 40.1% above its Q4 2024 level, while the European Union benchmark increased 2.1% over the same period, from 107.7 to 110. Romania ranked second among 31 economies, though that ranking compares relative changes from each economy’s reference level—not their actual numbers of workers.
This should not yet be read as proof of a hiring boom. The figures are neither seasonally nor calendar adjusted, so comparisons between Q4 and Q1 can include recurring staffing and timing effects. Even so, the recent series offers no comparable break: it moved from 94.2 in Q2 2020 to 113.8 in Q4 2025, and the same quarter a year earlier was only 112.7.
A separate output measure moved sharply at the same time: the production in services index rose 43.46% from 126.1 to a record 180.9. That coincidence may warrant scrutiny, but services output is not a worker count and does not establish that trade businesses hired on the scale implied here.
If the employment reading holds, it would indicate a major expansion in the number of people working in Romanian shops, wholesale businesses and vehicle repair, with consequences for labor demand and wage pressure. If it reflects a revision, reporting discontinuity or other statistical break, those conclusions do not follow. The next release—and any methodological explanation from Eurostat—will matter more than the record label.