Retail, construction, transportation, services, food industry and manufacturing are the areas that hire the most specialists and managers during this period. Candidates want a salary 15% – 20% higher than their current one to accept a new offer

Almost 12,000 jobs for specialists with more than 5 years of seniority and managers have been put on the market since the beginning of the year. Retail, construction, transportation, services, food industry and manufacturing are the areas that are recruiting the most candidates in this category at the moment.

They are mainly looking for finance / accounting specialists, from entry-level to senior level roles, sales specialists, regardless of industry and candidates for technical positions, especially construction or installation engineers, with mid to senior level experience.

“For certain specializations, such as engineers, sales specialists, finance and accounting, but even in IT, the demand is higher than what the market offers, which creates a difficulty in identifying and attracting candidates for open positions in the company. For this reason, depending on the degree of specialization, the seniority of the recruited position or the complexity of the recruitment process, the closing time for a position can vary from 45 days to 90 or even more, in the case of managerial positions,” says Olivia David, recruitment manager at Skilld, the recruitment agency of eJobs Romania, specialized in white collar roles (candidates with higher education) and gold collar (highly qualified people, in high demand on the labor market).

For such roles, employers are looking for candidates with higher education, fluent English speakers, a second foreign language (German, French, Spanish or Italian) being necessary for positions in service center or customer support structures. Recruiters also require at least one or two years of experience and, for candidates with a higher level of seniority, a white ball is proven stability in previous jobs.

“If in the case of entry-level jobs recruiters show more concession when meeting a candidate, when it comes to specialist jobs, employers want to see prepared candidates for the interview, who are informed about the employing company, who show interest or ask questions,” says Olivia David.

Despite the fact that there is a high interest in these categories of candidates, recruiters face a number of obstacles in filling open positions for them. Employers are primarily faced with discrepancies between candidates’ expectations and the salary budgets they have available.

“Companies, especially those in the same field of activity, have salary scales aligned with the market, but candidates who are interested in making a change are motivated by a salary that is at least 15% – 20% higher than the one they currently have. In addition, there is a frequent phenomenon of counteroffers from the current employer once an employee announces his resignation. In most cases, if the salary alone was what made him leave, the employee chooses to refuse, in the end, the new offer and stay with the company he already works for,” explains Olivia David.

Another important aspect as you advance in your career is the desire to have a well-defined balance between your personal and professional life and to manage your own time. In this regard, many candidates are looking for a flexible working regime (remote or hybrid) or an employer whose headquarters are easily accessible by public transport or close to home. Of the 2.5 million applications registered since the beginning of the year, 510,000 came from specialists with more than 5 years of experience and almost 120,000 applications from managers.

Most applied for jobs available in retail, construction, services, manufacturing and transport / logistics. Skilld is the recruitment agency of eJobs Romania, launched in 2021, which uses a complex arsenal of recruitment tools (digital campaigns, social media and social recruiting) to quickly identify both active and passive candidates, as well as professionals susceptible to a career change.