Financial crisis closes doors of the springs edition of JOBfest fair
“In January, we have decided to cancel the spring job exhibition, as the job offer has sharply narrowed lately. We were actually wondering if it makes any sense to hold a fair with 30 employers or even less”, Mihai Manole, executive manager at HR Perform, organizer of the event, told Wall-Street.
The recruitment company held last year a spring edition of the job fair for the first time, on April 11-12 at National Military Circle, with over 50 companies and 1000 job openings. The event was mostly designed to young graduates and students.
“Companies that are still hiring, are now more concerned to recruit specialists and managers, unlike last year, when there were many vacant jobs at entry level”, said Manole.
Employers who are still seeking employees for entry-level positions, are recruiting based on direct applications and references, as they were forced to work with limited resources. A company is paying nearly 1,500 – 2,000 euros to attend a job fair. Employers who urge for a larger exposure at the event must pay up to 10,000 euros, and now, companies don’t seem willing to pay this amount any longer for entry-level recruitment, Manole added.
“Employers prefer to focus their financial resources to top management recruitment while for entry level positions the internal resources are used. In this context, we will focus our job placement strategy on management positions or specialized jobs”, Manole said.
Even if JOBfest will not take place this spring, Bucharest will still host a variety of job fairs. Both Top Employers, the biggest event of the recruitment market, and BankingJobs, fair exclusively designed to banking job seekers, will take place this spring. The offer however is more modest than last year.