Employers hiring graduates on open-ended contracts may receive RON 2,250 per month for 12 or 18 months. The relief requires an agreement with the employment agency and retention of the employment relationship for at least 18 months.
Prepared by the AS Group Team · Informational document
Employers who hire graduates of educational institutions on open-ended contracts may, under certain conditions, receive a subsidy for the positions created. The relief is useful for companies building teams through entry-level recruitment, but the conditions concerning prior relationships with the graduate, the ownership structure and the retention of the employment relationship make careful verification necessary before hiring.
Employers may receive:
The subsidy period does not match the commitment period. Employers benefiting from this relief are required to maintain the employment relationship of the persons hired for at least 18 months from the date the individual employment contract was concluded — six months beyond the subsidy period in the general case.
A graduate of an educational institution means a person who has obtained, under the law, a diploma or a study certificate from an educational institution at the following levels:
For the purposes of granting the relief, the form of education may be:
To obtain the subsidy, the employer must conclude an agreement with the county employment agency or, as applicable, that of the Municipality of Bucharest, within 12 months of the date of graduation.
The date of graduation is deemed to be the first day of the month following the month recorded in the diploma or study certificate, where that document does not expressly state a specific graduation date.
The 12-month deadline runs from the date of graduation, not from the date of hiring. A delay in concluding the agreement may forfeit the entitlement to the subsidy even where the hiring itself took place in time.
The following are not eligible for this relief:
The condition regarding common directors/shareholders is assessed at group level, not only at the level of the employing company. A departure by resignation or by agreement of the parties at an affiliated company within the past 2 years may block access to the relief.
Employers who terminate the employment relationship before the term set out in the agreement are required to repay, in full, to the employment agencies the amounts received for each graduate whose employment contract was terminated, plus the reference interest rate of the National Bank of Romania in force at the date of termination.
In such cases, the employer may no longer receive a new subsidy from the unemployment insurance budget for a period of 2 years from the date of termination of the employment relationship.
The main points to consider in order to benefit from the relief are:
The subsidy materially reduces the cost of a graduate's first year of employment, but it comes with a commitment that extends beyond the funding period: 18 months of maintaining the employment relationship, failing which the amounts must be repaid in full, with interest.
The decision to access the relief should be assessed alongside the medium-term workforce plan, not solely on the immediate saving. Checking the exclusion conditions — particularly the one concerning common directors at group level — belongs before the employment contract is signed, not after.
AS Group supports companies with an integrated financial, tax and operational perspective, at the moments when decisions need structure.
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