Young job-seekers need a comprehensive career guidance system and better information on education choices and employment opportunities, reveals the World Bank’s report From Aspirations to Occupations: The Role of Information in Educational and Labor Market Decisions in Moldova.

For the first time in Moldova, this report addresses how students make decisions, what information they use and who they consult, as well as what career guidance they find useful.

The scarcity of good jobs is illustrated by the low employment rate – about 40 percent of adult Moldovans work, compared to 50–60 percent in other countries in Europe and Central Asia. The low productivity of existing jobs is the result of both a high share of jobs in low-productivity sectors, such as agriculture, trade, and tourism, and the relatively high incidence of informal labor, comprising almost 30 percent of the employed.

In addition, 40 percent of firms in Moldova cited skills as a major or severe constraint to growth in 2013, one of the highest rates in Europe and Central Asia, according to the World Bank.

Read more on The Financial.