200,000 graduates to flood crowded labor market

More than 200,000 graduates will enter the job market this fall, half of which finalized their studies at economic and law faculties, medicine and pharmacy, IT and engineering. But the job supply for these majors is some 4,500, which means a ratio of over 20 applicants for one job, according to an analysis by Business Standard, based on data provided by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, Romanian universities, human resource companies and recruiting websites.

Graduates will have an even tougher time to fit in on the job market, considering that the number of unemployed is expected to rise by some 300,000 by year-end, to approximately 800,000 jobless.

The number of young people who opted for economic and law faculties rose exponentially in the past few years. If some 2,000 economists and 300 lawyers finalized their studies in 1990, at present, figures amounts to almost 30,000 economy graduates and 9,000 law graduates.

Moreover, if Romania was confronted with an acute personnel shortage in previous years, now, the job supply is far below demand, given the new market conditions. At present, most vacancies are in fields such as sales and trade, IT, engineering, and logistics.

"The market is oversaturated with economists and psychologists. Graduates of technical faculties and pharmacists have the best chance to find a job," said the Managing Partner of the Total Business Solution recruiting and executive search company, Daniela Necefor.

"Very few people who graduate university this year will find a place to work, at least in the fields they are trained for, especially considering the economic conditions in 2009," said the Head of the Romanian Industry, Service, and Trade Employers Association (CPISC), Adrian Izvoranu. He added that this situation is due to the fact that Romania's education system has two anomalies: the curriculum is not structured according to requests on the job market, and most graduates lack the skills to meet the employers' requirements.

On the other hand, Minister of Labor Marian Sarbu said he is not worried about the situation. "In the case of university graduates, I would not say that the danger is severe, because there are extremely few people with higher education who enter unemployment," Sarbu added. Young people who are presently looking for a job are particularly interested in sales, finance and accounting, banks, management and consultancy. Of the total number of applications received in the first three months of this year, almost 40 percent belong to people under the age of 25, according to the BestJobs recruitment website.

Business Standard