The Insertion of Economic Cybernetics Students on the Romanian Labor Market in the Context of Digital Economy and COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the insertion of Romanian students of economic cybernetics on the labor market by connecting business environment expectations with the goals of a competitive digital economy. The research is organized around three hypotheses to address the issues of both non-employed and employed economic cybernetics students. A rank-ordered probit choice model was estimated to compute the probability that a certain skill requires improvement. The empirical results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic stimulated more cybernetics students to get a job in this period. Moreover, these students present the necessary level of digital skills to be employed, but other skills need improvement: skills of analysis and synthesis, adaptability in handling crisis situations and creativity. This research reveals the lack of working experience as the main cause for rejection after an interview and the students’ tendency to overestimate their salary. This study also identified barriers of the insertion on the labor market for these students with digital skills that were not the subject of previous studies. Moreover, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their decision to get a job in this period is assessed and a few recommendations of skills improvements are provided. These results present practical implications for educational policies and the business environment in the context of achieving a competitive European digital economy. The limit of this research is given by the sample representativeness for cybernetics students only for Bucharest, but a future paper will ensure a representative sample at the national level.