9,000 university graduates of 2009, unemployed

Universities turn out unemployed graduates because they are not adapted to the market, state HR specialists.

In 2009, 92,000 students graduated from state universities and 9,000 of them applied for unemployment benefits with the National Employment Agency (ANOFM), with the benefits standing at 300 RON per month in their case, according to ANOFM data.

The graduates cannot find a job because of the economic downturn, but also because the market continues to be saturated by fresh graduates’ job applications as 2008 saw two generations of students graduate at once.

In 2008, the first generation with only three years of college education graduated, in line with a European convention of Bologna that Romania also joined. University graduates can apply for unemployment benefits within 60 days after graduation provided they get a certificate from a company to which they submitted a CV certifying the firm received an application, but had no positions available.

In Bucharest, for instance, the number of unemployed university graduates who graduated this year stands at 428, compared with the overall number of 2,912 unemployed graduates. In the rest of the country, there are around 200 fresh graduates who became unemployed on average per each county.

The total number of unemployed people in Bucharest amounts to 20,356, of whom 2,912 higher education graduates. Last July, the number of unemployed people registered with ANOFM topped 18,200 in Bucharest, of whom 8.2%, namely around 1,500 people, were university trained.

“The higher number of unemployed people can also be accounted for by the registration as persons seeking a job of 2009 class of higher education graduates.” This is how ANOFM representatives explain the 6.3% unemployment rate of July, 0.3% above the June figure.

Thus, the total number of jobless people exceeded 572,000 in late July, 23,600 more people than in the previous month.

The main factor behind the rising number of jobless university graduates is the low number of jobs available on the market as most companies have frozen recruitment processes or resorted to headcount cuts.