New jobs or old workers recording?

The current Kosovo government, which has marked first year in power on March 22nd, has said that in September 2020, September 2021, over 25,000 new jobs have been registered “.

Its data is, in a way, supported by the Kosovo Tax Administration, under which the number of employees in the private sector throughout 2021 has increased to over 28,000 by over 255 thousand in the previous year.

But BSPK Chairman Yusuf Azemi insists these figures are not real.

According to him, there is only chance some businesses to have awarded contracts to workers who did not have them to benefit from the Economic Resurrection Pack.

I don't believe 25 thousand jobs were created because, at the same time, 30 thousand other workers were able to leave work. This is disturbing to us. Then, a number of workers have been working [without contracts] and businesses have introduced them into the wage system, because the Government of Kosovo has stimulated them to formalise workers”, Azem says of Radio Free Europe.

The 420m-euro economic revival package ʹ has been shared by the Government of Kosovo in July 2021 to help businesses address losses suffered by the coronary pandemic.

Under this package, the Government of Kosovo has allocated 15m euros in August for the return of workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic to support formalised employees, as well as women's employment.

With this package, the employer has received support from 10 percent of the worker's salary until June 2022, while the worker has received 50 euros ' support for the next three months.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that only due to applications made for profit from the Economic Resurrection Package has the number of registered or formalised workers reached 10,000.

The September 2020 “until September 2021 are 25,200 more registered jobs, of which more than 10,000 are the result of the Kosovo Economic Resurrection Pack”, Kurti has said of Kosovo's public broadcaster.

According to the chairman of the Kosovo Chamber of Economics, Berat Rukiqi, businesses have opened new jobs, but a considerable number of them make up the workers who have been working, and the contracts have already taken them.

Rukiqi gives no appreciation for how many new workers may have been employed during 2021.

Gerjali: No factories opened that would increase the number of employees

Economics professor Safet Gerjaliu agrees that the Economic Resurrection Package has produced results in the formalisation of workers, but new jobs, according to him, did not.

“Here has the formatization of workers, because in Kosovo there is not a factory that employed 200 people, there are not ten factories that have been employed by 100 people, but there are not even 20 new factories that have been employed by 50 people”, Gerjaliu tells Radio Free Europe.

The declaration or formalisation of workers is made in the Kosovo Tax Administration (ATK), which automatically passes to the Pension Savings Fund.

Over 45,000 new taxpayers to the Pension Savings Trust

ATK officials have not answered Radio Free Europe's question about how many formalised workers were during 2021. But, from the Pension Savings Trust, they confirmed to REL that, last year, more than 45,000 new contributions were registered.

As for the latest figure, Gerjaliu says it has affected the observers' temporary commitment to parliamentary and local elections that were held last year.

To employ 45,000 new persons over a year, it would be the greatest miracle Kosovo” would have to happen, he says.

Last year, Kosovo has held parliamentary elections and two runs of local elections.

According to the Central Election Commission, about 25,000 people have been engaged in parliamentary parliaments, while at local ones 37,000.

The CEC has not provided any information on how many of these persons are registered in the Tax Administration and therefore in the Savings Trust.

Despite figures given for increasing the number of employees, the latest data of the Kosovo Statistics Agency (ASK), including the first quarter of last year, speaks for 25.8 percent Unemployment.

However, according to the AKS, the number of jobseekers in all Kosovo municipalities during 2021 has dropped to over 122 thousand, down from more than 165 thousand in 2020. / REL