IT&C: The wave of layoffs from the US has not yet reached domestic "shores".

The large IT&C companies in the United States of America have laid off tens of thousands of employees in the last 18 months, and the experience of previous crises shows that movements in the global market are felt in Romania with a difference of between six and nine months compared to the moment of their onset over Ocean.

The rector of the Timisoara Polytechnic University (UPT), Florin Drăgan, claims that the wave of layoffs from the USA in the IT&C field was not felt in western Romania, the employability rate of Timisoara university students reaching 93% at the bachelor's degree and 96% at the master's degree. According to the rector: "The continuous increase in the employability rate of our graduates also means that they stay in Romania after finishing their studies. The need for engineers in Timisoara means that two thirds of the graduates who arrived from other counties stay here after completing their studies. In the market, we also notice an increase in the number of young Romanians who completed their bachelor's studies abroad, but who returned to the country for a master's program and were employed here.The presence of UPT in the European alliance E3UDRES2, together with eight other European universities, facilitates a multicultural environment and working in multidisciplinary teams, so an integration within a multinational company here or abroad is very easy". In order to have a clear view of the labor market, the UPT specialists analyzed the data from the Employee Record Register to check whether the 2022 graduates of the UPT are employed, 18 months after completing their studies. The employability of IT engineers was equaled by the employment rate of construction, mechanical or electrical and energy engineering engineers, according to the UPT study. A highly sought-after field in the market is mechanical engineering, where 95% of graduates have a job, because Timisoara represents an important industrial pole in Romania. The only field of engineering with a percentage below 90%, but increasing compared to two years ago, is that of chemical engineering. "For now, the global crisis has not affected us very much because we still benefit from the advantage of cheaper conditions in Romania. So some of the companies no longer hire in the West, but maintain the jobs in Romania or even move certain projects to in the country. It is not excluded that these layoffs will also reach Romania, but normally these effects are felt at a much lower level", pointed out Florin Drăgan.

According to some data communicated by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, the contribution of the IT sector to the Gross Domestic Product reached 8% and had a continuous increase in recent years. There are over 200,000 people working in this industry. Despite the global challenges, this sector remains one of the most dynamic and with the greatest long-term growth potential in the Romanian economy.