YOUTH LABOUR MARKET. MOBILITY, CAREER DEVELOPMENT, INCOMES. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

This paper presents the main characteristics of the youth labour market, with a special view on mobility, career development and incomes. The paper is substantiated by and continues the researches of the authors on the topic of labour force mobility and on the one of adaptability, respectively on youths' beahviour on labour market (with particular consideration of young graduates) highlighting the factors that adjust choices regarding taking up a job, career advancement, labour motivation, professional and personal satisfaction opportunities which are provided by the labour market at local level, in country and abroad. Quantitative and qualitative indicators are presented about Romanian youths' labour market within the European context during the transition period. The impact of the crisis on youths' labour market is analysed, highlighting the challenges and opportunities, the particularities of the newly created jobs and especially the knowledge, skills and competencies requirements (KSC). The authors propose both the improvement of the systems of indicators for defining the potential and presence of youth on the labour market, the economic and social impact of external mobility of young graduates and an integrated scheme of policy measures for promoting adaptability and performance integration on Romanian labour market of youth. Particular attention is paid to presenting policy instruments for halting/diminishing the brain drain and brain shopping phenomena by promoting an attractive (professionally and monetary) supply for employment in Romania's local economy. The authors succeed in highlighting the functional links between the education market (labour force supply) and labour market (employment demand of the business environment) underpinning the requirement of integrated management of labour potential in the years preceding studies' finalization and up to the post-insertion years by multi-criteria analysis models and graduate career tracking programmes. Correlative measures are suggested for policies, procedures and monitoring instruments of youths' adaptability on labour market, as alternative to external migration/mobility for labour.