Disturbing numbers: 11,000 university graduates are unemployed in Kosovo

Adelina Rizanaj has completed studies at the University of Pristina, running Biology-Kim. But the degree he received after completing his studies is not serving him for employment.

Even after so many years, she's looking for a job.

Rizanaj shows that he has been interested many times in hiring in the Pristina municipality, Prizren and Podujevo, but that he had always received the same answer, “there are no free places for this profession”.

She is still awaiting a competition for the profession in which she has completed her studies.

But Adelina is not the only one with a degree and is unemployed. The same fate, they share more than 10,000 other people.

In fact, some of them have drawn close to old age, and they will seem to be able to take on their retirement rather than their first wage at work.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Labour and Social Management that has provided the Express, the number of unemployed in the country totals about 95 thousand.

MPMS media spokesman Musa Demiri claims that out of all this number of unemployed people, over 10,000 of them also have university diplomas. Demiri says that compared to last year, the number of unemployed is roughly the same.

The number of registered unemployed who have Bachelor diplomas is around 10,572 persons”, said MPMS statistics.

Based on these statistics, cities with the largest number of unemployed are emerging as Prizren, Pristina, Mitrovica, Peja, Ferizaj and Podujevo.

In these municipalities alone, the number of people who are not employed amounts to about 30,000 citizens.

And although many of the citizens complain they have no jobs, in the country there are currently about 12,000 and 685 free jobs. The sectors currently looking for workers are that of trade, industry, hotels, construction and agriculture.

Meanwhile, the reason the graduating Kosovars are failing to find work is because education connoisseurs are leaving educational institutions until they say the economy has an impact.

The director of the Kosovar Centre for Education, Dukagjin Pupovci, has told Gazeta Express that the main reason Kosovars are failing to find work lies with the economy, as it does not generate jobs as much as there are demands.

It claims that there is another problem with the Institutes of Higher Education, which he claims is not equipping students with the skills that the job market requires.

The top “is the economy, which does not generate jobs as much as required. Another reason is the large number of graduates of higher education. It's the eighth place in the world for participation, and the economy in the situation it's in cannot absorb all graduates”, Pupovci says.

It claims that the number of unemployed with diplomas will increase even more years to come. Even statistics from the Ministry of Labour and Social Management are not included among those with university degrees and jobs that are not required for a diploma, he says.

I think that the number of unemployed with university degrees will go up. These statistics do not account for those who have university degrees and work without a degree, that is, jobs that are under their qualifications”, Pupovci told Express.

Pupovci says that to improve this situation, educational institutions should equip students with the skills required in the labour market.

In Kosovo's Economic Ode, many businesses complain that employees are not capable of the labour market.

OEK spokesman Berat Rukiqi has said that one of the reasons why there are so many unemployed people in the country is also the lack of communication between the private and public sector.

Rukiqi says that with such communication, the needs of the labour market would be known, and that the university would be preparing frameworks that need market.

The majority of companies complain that workers are not properly prepared and are not very productive. There is a lack of communication between the private and public sector. Lack of this communication is emerging in business complaints for all targeting”, Rukiqi said.

The first of the OEK suggests that some of the directions should be reduced or completely closed.

There are many directions that produce graduates more than the labor market needs. These directions should be reduced or completely out of existence, such as directions related to administration and social science”, Rukiqi told Express.

He considers the fact that many of the employees are overqualified for their work.

Well, what's most disturbing is that even when they find a job, they don't find it based on their qualifications. So, we have a difference between the qualifications they receive and the market needs”, Rukiqi said.

And that graduates are not capable of the job market, it was raised as concerns several times by Kosovo businesses.

In a GAP institute analysis on professional preparation for the labour market, businesses have said that difficulty finding qualified workers.

Of 92.6 percent of surveyed companies who have employed new workers over the past three years, 82.1 percent have found it difficult to find qualified workers.

The non-compliance with business requirements has led companies to employ less qualified workers, prevent the development of new services and reduce productivity”, the GAP report said.

But the situation turns out to be more serious than the lack of new jobs.

According to a Kosovo Statistics Agency report, there are over 100,000 young people in Kosovo who are completely cut off from the labour market as a result of lack of schooling.

At the Labor Force Survey for the last quarter of 2017, this agency is alarmed that as a result of this, Kosovo may have this major social problem in the future.

Risked mainly are inactive youths - they are not employed. This category of young people does not attend schooling or train, and they are completely cut off from the job market and do not participate in the education system either.

It is about more than 100,000 young people in this category (age 15 to 24) who did not attend schooling, were not employed or trained, and made up 29.7 percent of the new population.