Hundreds of applications for each new job

The stores that retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) is set to open in Bucharest have stirred the interest of hundreds of college graduates who applied for the openings with the Swedish giant in the first day when they were posted. The company is looking for middle-management personnel for the first six stores to be opened next March.

The job market is getting harsher and harsher, with every job posted hunted by dozens or even hundreds of graduates in a matter of hours. Most new jobs are in the IT, software or service centre industry. The high number of applications is made possible by the fact that they can be automatically submitted online, so that it becomes increasingly harder for HR managers to process CVs. Under the circumstances, many of them revert to looking for people based on recommendations.
On specialist job site BestJobs more than 850 CVs were posted for H&M jobs on Monday and Tuesday.
“We are getting 60 or 70 CVs for every position opened, and the number of applications has increased significantly compared with the previous years,” says Delia Blăjan, human resources manager of Adobe Romania, who currently has 30 openings for software developers and database administrators.
The representatives of Caro hotel complex network, which is looking for a general manager and sales manager, have received as much as 600 applications for each position.
The National Employment Agency had 42,000 university graduates without a job registered in June. They collect 300 RON in unemployment benefits.
Some of the biggest employers at this time are outsourcing centres of such companies as HP, Genpact, Samsung, ING and Wipro.