Public Sector Better for Employment Than Private

The highest wages, the treatment of workers, as well as the most favourable contracts, are some of the reasons cited by job seekers and business representatives, as elements making the public sector more popular for employment.

The executive director of the American Economic Ode in Kosovo, Arian Zeka, tells Radio Free Europe that the reason why the public sector is more attractive to the workforce is economic security and the feeling that people create that they have a more stable and secure job.

According to him, in the public sector, protection of employees is greater and people are subsequently instructed to work there.

“Paxes in the public sector have increased over the years in a similar way, so that then all of them, whether existing employees in the public sector or potential employees, so as soon as the graduates have seen only the public sector as opportunities to develop their careers. This is against perhaps all other international practices where the private sector usually is the one that offers better conditions and greater career development opportunities and the advancement of employees”, Zeka says.
Adnan Selimi, who is looking for a job, says he prefers the public sector for employment rather than private employment. According to him, there are many reasons that public sector work is more attractive.

The public sector respects the labour Law, does not violate workers' rights, and salaries are higher, work schedule is regular 8 hours and not 12 and 13 hours of working in the private sector. All of this makes me prefer public sector employment”, he says.

Another citizen, Hysni Nimani, similarly puts it.

The private sector does not protect workers, working conditions are not good, there is no financial security, there are no work contracts and to fire whenever they want to, he says.

Research conducted by representatives who protect workers' rights was stressed that the private sector is the biggest worker's rights violator.

Meanwhile, according to data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, around 85 thousand citizens are employed in the public sector, while in the private sector, about 250 thousand workers are employed.
Differences regarding working conditions between the private sector and public sector are large starting with wages. According to official data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, the average salary in the private sector in Kosovo is 384 euros, while in the public sector the average salary is around 500 euros.

The executive director of the American Economic Ode in Kosovo, Arian Zeka, adds that the public sector has taken advantage of the possibility of raising salaries as well as securing power, which he says has influenced frequent salary decisions.

He says that with money from the private sector contributing to the filling of the state ark, the public sector has been enabled to raise wages. By increasing wages in the public sector, Zeka says, damage has been caused to the private sector, which, according to him, also has difficulty finding the appropriate workforce.

Despite our recommendations as the American Economic Age and international mechanisms that this could affect deepening the budget deficit, wages in the public sector have increased. Today's wage bill is big”, Zeka says.

Kosovo's 2019 budget totals 2.3 billion euros. Of this amount, over 600m euros are for the salary and hire category.

Unemployment in Kosovo according to official data is 29.6 per cent. The most pronounced unemployment rate is among 15-24-year-old groups with 55.4 percent. From this figure, over 19 percent of unemployed people have completed their financial education.