Todorovic: Serbia is the first in employment in the region but lacks quality jobs

According to official statistics, Serbia’s employment rate in the second quarter stands at 51.4 percent, and Dragan Todorovic, president of the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Belgrade, states that Serbia is the first in the region in employment compared to other EU candidate countries. He confirms for Kosovo Online that jobs are indeed available in Serbia but warns of a lack of quality jobs.

Todorovic says that the official unemployment rate is not fully accurate, as it includes individuals in insecure, temporary, and seasonal jobs, leading to a discrepancy of about 600,000 people.

“These are insecure jobs, people can’t get loans, they lack stability, and they can’t join unions. We view the data with caution because the survey has shifted from measuring unemployment to a general labor market survey,” he explained.

According to him, if looked at from the outside, it sounds very nice that there are only 257,000 unemployed in Serbia.

"However, if we look at the inactivity rate and exclude retirees and other groups, such as dependents receiving social assistance and similar, we definitely arrive at around 500,000 people who are missing from that statistic," Todorovic says.

If we also take into account the 600,000 with informal jobs, he adds, more than a million people are in some gray zone.

"They are certainly doing something. What I want to emphasize is that there is work in Serbia, but there are no quality jobs and what people would like to have, decent salaries they can live on. That is why we have a large number of people in informal jobs, wandering around, or working multiple jobs to survive. Everyone is finding their own way, and then that statistic is not really representative to say 'yes, that's how it is,'" he states.

When it comes to trends, according to Todorovic, if we compare Serbia with the EU candidate countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania, the employment rate in Serbia is the highest. If we look at EU countries in the region, Bulgarians might even be one percentage point below, but all others are above.

"The Croats are at 68%, Romania at 66%, and these are among the lowest-ranked countries in Europe. Only the Italians have an employment rate of 65%, while countries further north go over 70%, some even over 80%. When we add what is missing from the official statistics, we come to around seventy percent, which should be the goal we aim for," he says.

One of the main issues, according to Todorovic, is finding jobs for young people.

"Younger people in Serbia can relatively quickly find a job. Certainly within the first year after graduation, but the question is the quality of the job. They can find some lower-quality jobs with lower incomes in a few months. For jobs that require expertise and are of higher quality, it takes about a year. There are also many positions where someone is expected to have knowledge and experience from the very beginning, and they do not have that, leading to a mismatch between employer requirements and what a young person can realistically offer," he notes.

The consequences of all this are primarily the emigration of young people, Todorovic says, adding that we are no longer talking only about the youth.

"That is a trend in Europe, but I believe that is not an excuse for us not to take the actions we can," he adds.

According to him, the solution would be to enable more quality jobs, but also better companies when it comes to foreign investors.

"I believe we have moved beyond the phase where we need jobs at any cost, and that anyone, even South Koreans, can come just for the sake of having jobs. We need better companies and better-paid jobs," he emphasizes.

He also stresses that we must train the workforce needed for the labor market.

"We have protests in education these days. That is the beginning of the whole story. We must first have satisfied teachers and professors to educate the children who will enter the labor market tomorrow. If we have a situation where children today do not want to enroll in those faculties to work as teachers and professors, I fear we are entering a major problem, so the idea that we will solve this by bringing in labor and migration is not a good policy," he states.

Todorovic adds that there are groups of jobs, which were discussed 20 or 30 years ago, where individuals in the West do not want to do certain jobs. He says that this is now appearing here as well, and that migrations are quite real and expected.

"But we should not allow our talented children and those who have quality and knowledge to leave and not strengthen their potential because that is what should strengthen this country and the economy in every sense tomorrow," Todorovic concludes.