1 young person out of 5 is unemployed in Romania

The unemployment rate among young people between the ages of 15 and 24 is almost 22%, according to the latest data provided by the National Institute of Statistics. At the same time, among those who have a job, 40% are registered in Commerce and Agriculture, even if they have higher education. The main reason is that entry-level job salaries are too low to meet the needs of young people, as 64% of respondents to the latest bestjobs survey of 18-24 year olds said. Thus, 40% of them end up starting their careers in a new field, for which they have no education or which does not require a certain set of skills, just to gain a better salary and experience on their CV.

Candidates aged 18-24 represent 20% of all users of the bestjobs online recruitment platform and have made almost 1 million applications since the beginning of the year. Most were in Retail, E-commerce, Call Center, Marketing, Administrative, Tourism, HoReCa, Logistics or Courier. A good part of the candidates also aim for internships or entry-level jobs in Engineering, IT or Finance, and many of them are oriented towards jobs in the digital environment, where they can build a career that ensures flexibility and remote work options.

“Normally, the career choice should be closely related to the field studied, so that the professional path is a coherent one. Unfortunately, for many this is not the case. Young applicants quickly find that salary offers are below their expectations, demands are too high and the work environment is often stressful in the fields for which they have academically trained. In this context, I choose the easier solution, which most of the time boils down to a better-paid job in a field such as Commerce or HoReCa, where the salaries offered do not depend so much on the skill set or seniority . This scenario is unfavorable for the labor market in general, as the level of academic knowledge and the desire to evolve in the studied field are diluted over time, creating a growing distance between the applied experience and the requirements of the respective sector“, says Ana Vișian, bestjobs marketing manager.