The end of planned economy era in Romania had significant implications for the labor market. Overall characteristics are shared by many other transition countries: emergence of open unemployment, reductions in employment rates, being stuck with a large industry sector (and loss making state-owned enterprises), a wage structure with little if any connection to productivity, an underdeveloped financial sector not capable of responding to the needs of the private sector that is supposed to flourish under such adverse conditions. Sometimes changes over time are impressive though, while at other times much needed reforms are only slowly implemented with mixed results.