Of the 625 jobs offered to university graduates, only seven percent have been filled. Main fields of activity in which most people were employed were hotels and other accommodation units, agriculture and auxiliary services, clothing, the food industry and construction.
The exchange’s characteristics changed completely this year compared to 2008, and authorities indicated that the number of participants in job exchanges was as high as in 2000, when there were over one million unemployed.
Thus, the supply of jobs dropped 50 percent, to 26,000, from some 50,000, while the number of participants amounted to about 47,000. Most vacancies were in Bucharest (2,623), Constanta (2,194), Iasi (1,561), and Timis (923).
Over 110,000 people have lost their jobs since the beginning of 2009, and the unemployment rate increased 1.2 percentage points in the first three months, to 5.6 percent, from 4.4 percent. The total number of registered unemployed was 513,621 at the end of March, and the authorities are estimating that this number will amount to some 800,000 unemployed by year-end. Even though the jobless rate soared over the past few months, Romania has a low rate compared to other European countries.
