Only one in three job fair candidates gets hired

Over 15,000 Romanians looked for a job at the end of last week at a Bucharest job fair, with the rise in the number of experienced specialists seeking a job significantly lessening the chances of young graduates to get hired.

Although increasingly more companies are announcing they are hiring and sending positive signals to the labour market, only some of the job openings are filled via job fairs.
“After talks with employers, we estimate one third of jobs available in job fairs are filled as a result of the event. One cannot put together statistics on the employability rate of candidates attending the fair because the hiring process takes six months,” says Dragoș Gheban, Business Development Manager with human resources consultancy Catalyst Solutions, which organises the “Angajatori de Top” (Top Employers) job fair every year.
More than 75 companies offered an overall 1,650 jobs at the event held on Friday and Saturday in Bucharest, with the most jobs continuing to be available in IT, outsourcing, and the banking sector. Among the companies that announced new hirings are BCR, BRD, Piraeus Bank, Microsoft, IBM Romania, Adobe, Oracle, HP, Accenture, Genpact, Wipro, Kraft Foods, Dacia Groupe, and Michelin.