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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Educational system must be harmonised with labour market needs

Belgrade, 30 November 2007

State Secretary at the Serbian Ministry of Economy and Regional Development Vladimir Ilic said today that Serbia, just as most countries in transition, has constant economic growth that ranges from 5% to 7%, and a high level of macroeconomic stability, but it lacks more jobs.

Author: Fonet

Ilic said at a conference "Business environment and labour market in Serbia" that the youth unemployment rate is as high as 48%, and that there are 300,000 unemployed without any qualifications whatsoever, while a great number of those above 45 and 50 who remained jobless do not have proper qualifications.

He said that a great capacity in new employment is in micro and small enterprises, which are those that have up to 50 employees.

Ilic recalled that the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development prepared for 2008 measures for encouraging employment, the most important of which are subsidies for opening new jobs, start-up loans and active policy measures for job searching implemented by the National Employment Service.

President of a trade union association Branislav Canak said that in Serbia interests of economy and employment are often in disharmony and that is why such situation should be changed.

In the Lisbon Strategy, which defines goals of EU economic policy, employment is the focal point and there is a good reason for that, said Canak and added that decentralisation is needed in order to increase employment in Serbia.

According to Canak, regions in the country should be enabled to handle regulations regarding employment, to raise funds on their own and take loans in order to finance employment where it is most needed.

President of the Serbian Union of Employers Rato Ninkovic said that Serbia will begin to confront real transition challenges when the number of employees in administration is reduced.

Participants at the gathering warned that the education system is in need of urgent reform so that it could become adapted to the labour market and the high rate of unemployment be lowered.

They said that meanwhile it is necessary to implement an active employment policy, through quick training and constant education of employees and those unemployed people whose qualifications are exceptionally unfavourable.

The conference was organised in cooperation with the network for improvement of business environment, ESPI Institute from Belgrade and INEKO Institute from Bratislava.