The cities with narrow employment opportunities that depend on one company and who don’t have the ability to draw investors’ interest and high unemployment rates should be avoided by the persons in the hunt for jobs, according to HR specialists interviewed by Wall-Street.

Vaslui and Mehedinti – highest unemployment rates

According to July stats, unemployment in Vaslui and Mehedinti jumped to 11.9%, over 4% above the countrywide average. Compared to June, jobless rate dropped from 12.1% to 11.2% in Vaslui while in Mehedinti, it increased by 6% in July.

“If I were to choose a job, I would first conduct a historical research of the city. I wouldn’t move for example in Vaslui where it was constantly registered the highest unemployment rate over the past years, which means that the city wasn’t taken into consideration for any type of investment by any Romanian or foreign company. I wouldn’t make to many hopes in finding a job in any city in Mehedinti county, the county with the second highest unemployment rates or in the southern cities, for example in Teleorman,” said Florin Ochiana, HR operations manager with recruitment company Lugera & Makler.

This year’s layoffs in the private sector have lifted unemployment rates to 6.3% in July, after reaching 6% a month earlier.

The total number of people on the unemployment rolls exceeded 572,000 at end-July, according to National Agency for Labor Force (ANOFM).

In September 2008, when the financial crisis set in, there were a total of 350,000 jobless countrywide, and the unemployment rate stood at around 4%.

Top cities with the highest unemployment rates also lists Alba county (10.4%), Dolj (9.8%), Teleorman (9.7%), Galati (9.5%), Hunedoara (9.2%), Covasna and Ialomita (9.1%) and Gorj (8.9%).

The counties with the lowest jobless rates are Ilfov (1.7%), Bucharest (1.8%), Timis (3.7%