Kosovo alone country in Balkans not showing rise in number of employees

If Balkan countries wanted to reach the average employment rate with medium income countries, they would have to create 2.8 million new jobs, while if they wanted to reach the EU average, they would have to create 3.7 million jobs.

This was said at the next meeting within the “Debates in Riinvest”, with the theme “The World Bank's report for Western Balkan countries 2019”, organised by Riinvest College.

In this case, Andrew Plachnik of Riinvest College presented the report “Statistics from the World Bank report ? Kosovo Labour Market”, where he said it remains disturbing that Kosovo is the only Balkan country that has not scored an increase in the number of employees.

According to him, unemployment remains the main problem of all Balkan countries, while in Kosovo and Bosnia it is much more pronounced.

He said that rising salaries in the public sector have caused a major imbalance with the private sector, while making a comparison for Balkan countries.

In spite of economic growth, the World Bank report argues that this growth has not been translated into the creation of new jobs, as strongly as growth 4.5 percent may sound. Even though employment rose in all other Balkan countries, Kosovo is the only country that has not scored an increase in the number of employees. By comparison, if Balkan countries wanted to reach the average employment rate with average income countries, they would have to create 2.8 million new jobs, while if they wanted to reach the EU average, they would have to create 3.7 million more jobs”, he said.

Alban Zogaj from Riinvest College said the country's economic growth is not being translated into jobs. According to him, 23 percent of employees are employed free of charge in family businesses, mainly in agriculture.

If we analyze this growth, capital investments don't bring employment, and if they do, they bring short-term employment. The country needs long-term employment. The World Bank has 5 key recommendations and gives us a good idea: the first recommendation is necessarily to maintain fiscal macro-stability, the second recommendation relates to reforms Kosovo should make in the social assistance programme. The third recommendation relates to investments that have to be made in human capital, and here the World Bank gives a particular focus. The fourth recommendation relates to the efficient growth of public institutions, where the Government of Kosovo and donors must increase their efficiency. The 5th recommendation is to improve governance and rule of law”, he said.

While Venera Demukaj from TRI Kosova said the report notes that economic growth in Kosovo turns out to be unstable. According to her, it is of concern that Kosovo is the only country in the region that has far higher salaries in the public sector than in private.

Professor Muhamet Mustafa said that if Kosovo's participation in the budget is seen, it stands in the lowest place compared to Balkan countries.

According to him, Kosovo does not collect enough revenues for the budget, 27 per cent.

The data for salaries, capital investments, social services, Kosovo shares for salaries slightly more than Albania, but less than Bosnia and Montenegro. For social services, Kosovo shared at least, and for capital investments it divided at most”, he said.