2022 marked a strong return to the labor market not only for large employers, who put a record number of jobs on the market, but also for small employers and newly opened businesses. After two difficult years for many of these companies, the first 8 months of the year have revived this sector and, with it, the confidence of candidates to apply for jobs in companies with no more than 50 employees.
Thus, from January to August, over 100,000 jobs were posted on eJobs.ro by startup recruiters, a level similar to that of 2019, but approximately 20% more than in 2020 and 2021. The more jobs came from service employers, followed by those in retail, transport/logistics, import/export and tourism. June was the most prolific month for this segment of companies, but it is expected that, from autumn, the number of offers for candidates will increase again. Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara and Iasi were the cities with the most start-ups that sought to increase their teams.
“Practically, one in three jobs posted since the beginning of the year so far have been from the small employer sector, with a maximum of 50 employees. There were over 10,000 companies that made hires. We are talking either of newly established businesses, or of businesses that this year resumed their activity at normal levels or even accelerated it. It is very interesting that, if in 2020 and 2021, for this category of employers we had a high percentage of remote jobs, now we see a marginal share of the total available jobs – about 8%“, said Roxana Drăghici, head of sales in within eJobs, the largest recruitment platform in Romania.
With the increase in the number of jobs put on the market by startups and small employers, the interest of candidates in them has also increased. Thus, in the first 8 months of the year, almost 2.5 million applications were registered, below the level of 2021, but 25% more than in 2019.
“It was a time when most of the trust capital was transferred to very large employers, to multinationals, which were directly associated with the idea of stability, solvency, with large budgets. The fact that the pandemic hit a lot of small businesses and forced them to stop their activity made the candidates more circumspect for a while, but now they seem to have passed that stage. From the almost 7 million total applications, from January until now, small employers have accumulated 2.5 million”, explained Roxana Drăghici.
Also in the reliable capital chapter, it is worth mentioning that the tendency of candidates is to apply to small employers in Romania rather than abroad.
Most wanted under retail, services, IT / telecom, advertising / marketing / PR and call center jobs. Retail, services and IT / telecom account for half of the total number of applications. The most obvious disproportion appears in the case of transport – it is the third field from the point of view of the number of jobs put on the market, but the last from the point of view of attracted applications.
“We see more and more diffuse differences between large and small employers. Of course, the volume of employment differs, but the reporting to the market trends is the same – they are mainly looking for full-time employees, who work from the office, and the salary ceilings offered are similar. It is also the reason why candidates no longer hesitate to apply for jobs in small companies“, Roxana Drăghici concluded.