Unemployment, youth inactivity in Kosovo

I have a double everywhere, but they don't even call me into interviews”, that's the words with which N. Gega, 24, from Theranda, the Master of Computer Sciences at Prizren University -- tells of endless attempts to find a job in its direction.

Despite this sector becoming the most attractive day, N.G. He's not getting a job. However, Gega is just one of thousands of young people who are unable to get a job. Although youth presents the largest population group, with over 35 per cent of the age of 15-24 and over 65 per cent under the age of 30, considered one of the main assets our country has, unemployment is expressed at a very high rate.

According to data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency for 2019, the percentage of young people as unemployed in the new population is 49.4 per cent, as well as the unemployment rate in female gender youth is higher (60.3 per cent) compared to males (44.1 per cent).

Schooling has improved prospects on the labour market, particularly for males since 63.0 per cent of illiterate men were unemployed, compared to 14.5 per cent of those who had completed the finance education.

In the AFP in 2019, young people in Kosovo were twice as likely to be unemployed as adults, with almost similar figures for men and women. The findings show that the likelihood of being unemployed for more than a year grows by age. In Kosovo, the group aged 25-29, although young group, unemployment for more than a year reaches 69.6 per cent compared to 65.1 per cent in men.

In the ASS report (2019), one-third of Kosovo's youth population has reportedly been unannounced in all forms, so they have not participated in school, training and work (NEET). In the AFP this year, 111,064 young people (15-24) who make up 32.7% of the country's youth population are completely cut off from the job market. The women's share of NET is 34.2% compared to 31.4% of men.

According to Dr. Muhamet Mustafa, the reasons for non-imagement of youth and high unemployment rates are many, but the main reason behind him is that Kosovo, instead of creating about 25,000 new jobs annually, creates half less.

This stems from insufficient economic growth (about 4% of annual growth, about 7% needed to reduce Kosovo's unemployment) and still small private sector investments, which must increase at least 40% to increase the generation of necessary jobs. Unemployment hits young people more, as they enter the market as initials and without work experience” has been expressed.

The next problem, according to Mustafa, is the failure to fit market needs and skills of workers.

The education system still fails to suit the needs of the labour market in terms of knowledge and especially skills. There is still an outdated approach to learning, learning and memorizing unnecessary things, and lack of what young, female and male people should learn, to be employed more easily,” he said.

”Crahas lack of new countries, we also have this unemployment called structural unemployment, when labor market offers and demand don't match, and remain jobs unmet because there is no working force with the skills and necessary knowledge” adds Mustafa.

According to him, women are more difficult to cope with because of their social status.

These problems hit young men and women equally, and women still present the problem in an even more difficult context because of the female status in society and the separation of work within the family, where males create a more privileged position. This is changing slowly, however, however, the essential problem is to reform the secular and inefficient education, to small economic growth and insufficient investments,”, he stresses.

Meanwhile, the situation of young people as well as Kosovars in general deteriorated in 2020. According to the World Bank, Pandemia Covid 19, which hit the whole world, Kosovo had found it growing in inactivity even before this crisis; 70 thousand Kosovars were found without jobs.

”Pandemia COVID19 has led to the closing of the economy, leaving large numbers of employees out of work. However, young people represent the most vulnerable category in the job market. Lack of experience, the high potential of replacing them with other workers, lack of long-term contracts, or even informal work, are among the main factors that make young people more vulnerable to the decline of economic activity,” says Dr. Gent Recica.

In the report released by the GAP Institute, COVID-19 prompted the number of registered citizens as unemployed near employment offices to rise markedly. In April 2020 alone, the Employment Agency and its 34 local offices have registered a total of 32,377 new job seekers. This has caused the number of job seekers registered for the January-April 2020 period to run to 37,392. Nearly half of them (16,820) are women.

The 15-24-year-old category represents a significant number of 48% of job seekers during this time of Pandemia (3,697), while 25-39 years of age have sought jobs of 4,900 persons.

As for the education of job seekers, the destructive part or 60% of these job seekers are illiterate, while 29% have completed primary and professional high school. About 7% are in high school, while 4% are highly educated. Of the illiterate, elementary and middle-school job seekers, most are men, in addition to researchers with Bachelor, Master or PhD who are women, the report says.

The” in Kosovo is estimated that each year about 25,000 young people are involved in the labour market for the first time, which, due to the closure of the economy, has been minimized into finding a job. The rest that are in the early years of job experience are considered junior. As such, companies find it easier to fire when faced with business problems. Also, part of young people are not registered as formal workers, unable to take advantage of government support measures that present double losses for young people,” points out Recica

Pandemia has reduced the business activity of almost all sectors in Kosovo. Dr. Recica, who adds that this situation has had a negative effect on young entrepreneurs as well.

The gastronomy sector is among the most affected sectors, but the young people of all sectors are affected by pandemic, because almost all sectors have had a reduction in business activity, and young people are the first to lose jobs. Besides the effects on young people as employees, the COVID19 pandemic has also affected young entrepreneurs who have invested in various entrepreneurial activities in various sectors. Given that the new entrepreneurs have small capital reserve, a large number of these companies cannot afford to pay rent and workers' salaries during this period, which leads to their bankruptcy,”, he says.

Young people are the most affected category in the job market. The reasons, according to noble Recica, are different.

The high record of informality is one of the causes why young people are most affected by the Covid19 pandemic. Other factors, however, also have relatively high impact, such as lack of experience, shorter and weaker ties with employers, the highest rate of opportunity to replace them with other workers in the future, short - term contracts, etc. ”

However, in addition to growing job seekers during pandemics, youth creativity has also generated new jobs.

The” young people tend to be more flexible, creative and innovative, so even under the pandemic some of them have witnessed entrepreneurial skills, through development and delivery of digital services, alternative distribution and similar services, which have generated new jobs that mainly offer employment opportunities for young people,” stresses Recica.

This publication is produced with the support of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the responsibility of Riinvest Institute and can in no way be viewed as the European Union's or BIRN's and AGK's”