One in five college graduates joins the ranks of the unemployed

Almost 20% of last year's 115,000 faculty graduates registered with the National Employment Agency (ANOFM) because they could not find a job after graduation.

Last year, of the 40,200 unemployed college graduates, more than half (21,600) had recently registered with the agency, i.e. were fresh out of college. Ever since late 2008, most companies on the Romanian market started to restructure and froze recruitment budgets in order to keep their businesses afloat, and made massive cost cuts. A big share of college graduates did not manage to find a job because companies that did hire last year had a wide range of experienced candidates to choose from, after 300,000 people lost their jobs last year in the private sector.

"I did not manage to get a job after I finished college, and decided to file for unemployment in order to get the unemployment benefit. I needed some money in order to survive in Bucharest," says Ovidiu, 24, a graduate of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine within the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.