SARAJEVO – Employers in Bosnia and Herzegovina are increasingly reporting the need for new workers. According to data from July 2024, employers reported a total of 4,127 needs for new workers to institutes and employment services in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 1,024 are women. However, the number of those who lost their jobs in the same period reached an alarming 9,521, of which 5,636 were women, which accounts for 59.19 percent of the total number of dismissals, according to Forbes BiH analysis.
In May and June, the same number of employees
Data from the BiH Agency for Statistics for June 2024 show that the number of employed persons in the country was 854,865, of which 388,832 were women. Compared to May 2024, the number of employees has not changed, which indicates stagnation in employment, and the question arises as to what kind of workforce there is in BiH bureaus and on the labor market, as well as what employment conditions are offered, if the labor market in to a high percentage there are those who offer work as well as those who are looking for it?
“We have lost the most productive part of the population, we are losing it rapidly and further, the economies of the West still require large amounts of labor. We have come to such a situation that partly the highly qualified workforce is now looking for better jobs with us, those who have not decided to leave, simply prefer to stay at the office rather than accept every offer. If you follow the data that indicate the lack of highly qualified workers, especially the engineering profession, it can be concluded that there is a great demand for these personnel and they are in a position to choose jobs. So there is a lack of highly qualified workforce, those with experience, who are highly valued and very quickly find well-paid jobs both here and abroad,” economist Aleksandar Ljuboja told Forbes BiH earlier.
Most of the unemployed are unskilled workers
The registered unemployment rate in the middle of the year was 27.6 percent, which is a slight decrease compared to April of the same year, when unemployment was 27.7 percent. On July 31, 2024, 328,674 unemployed persons were recorded in the records of employment institutes and services, which is an increase of 3,106 persons compared to the previous month. Of the total number of unemployed, 59.28 percent are women, which further emphasizes the problem of gender imbalance in the labor market.
Compared to the same period last year, unemployment in BiH decreased by 6.22 percent or by 21,787 persons. However, the situation differs between the entities – while unemployment decreased in the Republika Srpska by 338 persons (0.6 percent) and in the Brčko District of BiH by 69 persons (0.58 percent), in the Federation of BiH an increase of 3,513 persons was recorded (1, 36 percent).
At the end of the seventh month of this year, among the unemployed workers, the most are unskilled workers (NKV), of which there are 95,652, 92,536 people who are looking for a job come with a secondary vocational education, while there are 27,599 highly educated (VSS), with the fact that women make up the majority in this category – 20,028 compared to 7,571 men.
Although their presence still does not have a significant impact on the domestic labor market, the trend of hiring foreigners in Bosnia and Herzegovina is increasing. During 2023, 2,449 work permits were issued, of which 579 were permits for extension, and 1,870 for new employment, and most of them were issued to workers from Turkey, Serbia, Nepal and India. The Council of Ministers of BiH established a quota of 6,073 work permits for the year 2024, almost twice as many as the previous year. This increase indicates a growing domestic labor deficit, especially in the construction, service and industry sectors.
Forbes BIH
Source: capital.ba
