Alarms Yusuf Azem: Up to 150,000 workers are expected to leave Kosovo this year

Kosovo Private Sector Union Chairman Yusuf Azemi says all sectors are endangered by the workers' absence.

Azem points out that construction is the most endangered sector now by visa liberalisation, where citizens can move free Europe.

The “currently all sectors present in Kosovo are endangered by the lack of private sector workers. The construction will have a bigger challenge, since construction worker requires work with qualified people and has qualifications cannot cover any other person. And in gastronomial, it's very normal that requires qualified people, but here we're covering people with unqualified people. Definitely construction is more endangered than anyone else, Azem said.

Azem has now given the numbers of workers who have left, so starting in 2021, he says 42 thousand and 760 workers left, while 2023 with 62 thousand fewer workers.

He warns that this year this number will reach as many as 150,000 workers leaving.

The number of workers who left in particular in 2021 we had 42,760 workers, in 2023 we had about 62,000, and unfortunately this number is expected to reach 150,000. The figures could never be fully detailed, but however, according to the parameters we have, the minimum will be the 140,000 to 150,000 workers that will leave Kosovo during this year”, he said.

“I think it's normal that over 80% of the job escape is not to say and 90% are from the private sector, but yet the exit from Kosovo will also cover the 10% “, Azem told Blic newspaper.