Romania's young graduates face low employment rates amid rising youth unemployment

A Eurostat report for 2025 shows the EU graduate employment rate at 83%, with Romania among the lowest performers. Romanian graduates aged 20‑34 have an employment rate of about 73%, far behind leaders such as Malta (91%) and Germany (90.6%). The gap between higher‑education and secondary‑education graduates remains pronounced, with university graduates in Romania hiring at roughly 70% compared with the EU average of 87%.

National data from the Romanian National Institute of Statistics for the first quarter of 2026 reveal an overall unemployment rate of 6.5%. Unemployment is markedly higher in rural areas (10.3%) than in urban areas (3.5%). Youth aged 15‑24 face the steepest joblessness, with a 27.4% unemployment rate and a mere 16.5% employment rate. The labour force consists of 8.20 million people, of whom 7.66 million are employed and 0.54 million are unemployed. Employment is higher among men (71%) than women (53.9%).