Shahini: The Government of Kosovo has no strategy for developing new jobs

Agim Shahini, President of the Alliance for Kosovo Businesses, told Kosovo Online that although according to data from the Statistics Agency the unemployment rate stands at 13.9 percent, more than 51 percent of the workforce in Kosovo is inactive and unemployment remains a major problem.

The biggest issue, he assesses, is that more than 60 percent of those waiting for jobs are women.

“The Government of Kosovo has no strategy for developing new jobs, for developing the economy, and for moving forward when it comes to unemployment. Unemployment is present across the entire Kosovo, the percentages are the same,” Shahini said.

According to him, artificial intelligence is still not highly developed in Kosovo, but since it replaces many people, especially in administration, he expects that it will certainly have an impact in terms of reducing the number of jobs.

“The professions already lacking in Kosovo are skilled trades, which are in high demand even outside Kosovo. Nearly 50,000 people leave for abroad every year, and these are skilled professionals. What is most difficult is that in 2025 we also had businesspeople investing outside Kosovo because they found better conditions, as energy prices in Kosovo are the highest in the region,” our interlocutor said.

He also points out that new analyses by the World Bank show that Kosovo is the poorest in the entire region, and in Europe ranks first in poverty after Ukraine.

“When there is no employment and development, there is poverty among citizens and a weak economy. We depend on imports, which last year exceeded 7 billion euros,” he stated.

Looking at the region, he says that Kosovo has the highest unemployment rate.

“GDP in Kosovo is the lowest, and we also have the lowest growth. Our statistics show growth of more than three and a half percent, but three and a half percent based on the current base we have is the lowest we can have,” Shahini noted.