Annals of the „Constantin Brâncuşi” University of Târgu Jiu, Economy Series, Issue 6/2013 „ACADEMICA BRÂNCUŞI” PUBLISHER, ISSN 2344 – 3685/ISSN-L 1844 - 7007 CONVERGENCES AND DIVERGENCES OF EMPLOYMENT RATE IN UE28 A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF 2000-2012 PERIOD MARIAN ZAHARIA Professor PhD Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti marianzaharia53@gmail.com ANIELA BĂLĂCESCU Lecturer PhD “Constantin Brâncuşi” University of Târgu Jiu, anielabalacescu@yahoo.com ABSTRACT: In the European Union there is a constant concern for the implementation and support processes of convergence in all areas of economic and social development. In this regard, on 17 June 2010 the European Council adopted the Europe 2020 strategy whose major objectives aimed at education, innovation, social inclusion, employment and the environment / energy. Regarding employment target in 2020 is to achieve an employment rate of 70%. Through it would reduce the current gap in employment rates, which in some cases exceed 50 or even 60 points. The paper analyzes the developments in employment rates values of developed countries and those in developing, members of the EU. The analysis is performed both on the employment rates of people between 15 and 64 years in total and by sex and age groups. The findings highlight the existence of convergent processes, especially by groups of countries and some divergences that occurred during 2000 - 2012. Keywords: economic convergence, employment, financial crisis, EU28 Cod JEL: C10, J08, J21 1. Introduction The economic crisis triggered in 2009 affected labor markets in the EU, registering major imbalances, with strong impact on society as a whole, on the social life, on the family and the individual. To minimize and phase out the effects, the European Commission presented on 18 April 2012, a series of proposals to stimulate job creation such as: new jobs from the point of view of demand, through the establishment of ways in which the member states may encourage commitment by reducing wage tax revenue or through a better business support newly established. Proposals also concerns, identify economic areas with a potentially important for the creation of a considerable number of jobs, such as eco-economy, health services and information technology and communications. In the 2001-2003 and in last few years (2007-2012) in Romania the employment of labour has been affected by restructuring of economy, our country recording discrepancies still higher than the EU average. The existing problems in the labor market are aggravated by the demographic phenomena as: the decreasing of population, the demographic ageing, the increasing rate of dependence that make the national objective, which mentioned a level of the employment rate from 70% in 2020 to be difficult to reach (Zaharia & Bălăcescu, 2013). Labor market more generally, is the meeting place of demand and supply of labor. Labor supply consists of active persons comprises all persons aged 15 years and over, providing available labor force for the production of goods and services; it includes employed population and unemployed.(ASR 2012) In relation to labor supply, some of them form the employed population which includes, according to the methodology of ”Household labor force survey”, all persons aged 15 years and over, who carried out an economic activity producing goods or services of at least one hour1) during the reference period (one week) in order to get income as salaries, payment in kind or other benefits (ASR 2012). The activity rate is the ratio of the active population and total population aged 15 and over, and the employment rate is the ratio between employed population and total population aged 15 and over. The source of data, for this paper, was used the labor market statistics published by Eurostat, in which it is the results of three ample statistical surveys: the labor force in the EU (EU LFS-Labor Force Survey), Survey of Income Structure and Labor Cost Survey. 192