The crisis of young people without a job: Romania, 3rd place in Europe in juvenile unemployment. What employers are looking for

Romania has the third largest percentage of young unemployed in Europe, after Spain and Sweden, with almost 25% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24, according to data published on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Romania has the third largest percentage of young unemployed in Europe. Photo shutterstock

The unemployment rate (the weight of the unemployed in the active population) in April 2025 was 5.7%, decreasing by 0.3 percentage points compared to March 2025, Romanian statistics said on Tuesday. The number of unemployed from April (aged 15-74) was 467,400 people, of which a quarter are young people aged 15-24.

“The high attention, 24.8%, of the unemployment rate among young people (15-24 years), registered between January and March 2025”,the INS on Tuesday informed.

According to the specialists, the unemployment among young people could be much higher, since the statistics are based on the number of people registered in the official records, who do not include those without any job, but not registered.

“Many young people come out of the educational system with little practical experience or without technical skills that meet the requirements of the current work market. Also, many of the available jobs are for experienced people, which create a vicious circle: young people cannot get jobs because they have no experience, and employers prefer experienced people. It is repeated in the recruitment and selection processes and when we have a total number of recruitment positions, the number of positions for entry-level jobs also decrease.

In addition, not all employers can afford to hire experienced people. If the teams are small or the managers are rather trapped in operational activities than the management and the work volume is very large, most of the time they have neither the time nor the internal systems that will help them develop and grow employees inside the organization ”, told “Adevărul” Corina Stefan, a specialist human resources and 24hr.ro founder.

What is missing young people to hire

Asked what is missing young people to hire? “The labor market operates according to the rules of any market, respectively it is subject to the laws of demand and supply. Given the conditions of jobs overall, automatically affected, automatically and the number of entry-level positions is smaller and then the same number of people apply on a smaller number of positions. During the studies ”, explained Corina Stefan.

According to her, at the level of the selection process, there are still many industries in which the selection is based on a simple interview, which is held with the direct manager who does not necessarily have a recruitment and selection experience or in the candidates.

“Thus, we cannot discuss a process that tests the candidate's abilities related to the job requirements, but the manager relates to the ability of young people to make a good impression in the interview. Although not for all positions you need to have high relationship skills, many managers are looking for these skills, because they find it to work out. in an interview and interacting“, Added the HR specialist.

What pretensions do young people have from employers

On the other hand, he added, young people set their expectations from employers based on the information they receive from the family and the circle of friends, acquaintances. “This level of expectations usually include: the salary level and the benefit package, the type of program, the flexibility in the program, the possibility of working in telemuncan regime, possibilities of professional growth. For all people, not just young people, intrinsic motivators are the opportunity to develop their experience, autonomy and belonging to the group. Therefore, for young people it is very important to receive flexibility. In addition, the new generations have seen their parents working hard, being stressed and they want from the beginning a work environment that will allow them a balance between work and personal life ”, Ștefan added.

Why are young people rejected when trying to hire

Asked why young people are rejected when trying to engage, the HR specialist said that “the presentation at the interview is emptied”.

“Young people have to try to go for as many interviews to present themselves as best as possible. And this is a learning process: to find out what questions are asked, to know what to answer and to be active in the discussion.

The young people, who have not worked and just hear around what salaries the family or acquaintances have, can initially have unrealistic expectations. In many cases, they can relate to the salary had a close person, but they cannot evaluate whether that salary is an average salary in the market or, on the contrary, it may be a high salary.

For this reason, if expectations are not realistic, it can happen that an unprecedented young man is waiting for a salary only a little lower than another candidate who has been working for 2-3 years in the fieldand the experience will thus become the main option for the employer ”, pointed out the expert for “truth”.