Romania: University Graduates Between Employment And Unemployment

Over the years, European countries, including Romania, have tried to reduce unemployment and increase the number of university graduates. The quality and attractiveness of higher education play an important role because a solid university education can be the path to a successful career and a secure financial life. In the last decade, was intensified efforts to convince Romanian people to pursue a specialization at least to the bachelor's level. Except 2005, the number of university graduate women is higher than men, which shows their confidence in university education programs. The counties of Bucharest, Iași, Cluj-Napoca, Timiș and Constanța between 1996-2018 have the highest number of university graduates, and these counties also host the best universities in Romania. The quality of higher education must be in line with the personal aspirations of students and national targets. The attractiveness of Romanian university programs is demonstrated by the growing number of foreign students, especially from Arab countries and Africa. But a university education is just one piece of the puzzle, it is also vital to integrate graduates into the work field. Unemployment is one of the vulnerabilities that significantly affects young people. In 24 years, the number of unemployed aged between 30-39 years with a university degree was 98.796, a proportion of 36% - 64% in favour of women (63.078). Women still face great difficulty in finding a job even though they have a university degree. The lowest percentage of unemployed with a university degree in the number of university graduates were registered in 1995 (1.15%) and the highest in 2010 (6.06%). The lowest number of unemployed with university degree among the regions was registered in the North-West (68.989).