Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN)

Mapping Serbia 's Labour Market

Mapa tržišta rada

"This is a vast research project, an undertaking to delve deep into a segment of economics, and one that has yielded a number of major insights and observations of importance for economic policy. First and foremost, the subject of the study is truly impressive and topical on any number of planes. Unemployment is our society's greatest problem; anything that contributes to an understanding of its roots and the mechanisms that generate it is of great significance. Much effort has been invested in researching this momentously important issue: extensive calculations have resulted from the use of well-adjusted methodology; light has been shed on the problem, important as it is to society, from a multitude of angles; and there has been meeting of views on various aspects inherent to (un)employment, resulting in a cross-fertilisation of insights into issues that are all the more apparent in such a fundamentally unbalanced economy."

(From a review by Professor Ljubomir Madžar)

Serbia's Labour Market is a study that aims at providing a characterization of labour markets at the level of districts and municipalities in Serbia, and uncovering the factors that cause unequal performance of regional labour markets. The study also gives an overview of the labour market's regional perspectives, offers recommendations for an employment policy geared towards more balanced regional growth, and provides a framework for practical actions to foster employment at the local level.

In standard economic theory, ensuring and fostering unimpaired geographic mobility of labour is considered a solution for large-scale and long-term differences in employment rates or salary levels. Unfortunately, the very low geographic mobility of Serbia 's workforce is in itself caused by low salaries, a lack of housing, and reliance on a network of family contacts and friends in one's hometown. As these characteristics are rather constant, a better way of controlling regional unemployment differences in the short term is to create additional jobs in the regions where they are needed most.

The study identifies an exhaustive list of factors affecting key labour market indicators, provides a thorough set of statistical documents for selected indicators, and measures them in a regionally comparable manner – both individually and grouped into composite indices.

We believe that the results of our research can be of assistance to economic and employment policymakers, both at the national and local levels. At the national level, our results and recommendations can be used to set development priorities and regional assistance programmes, design and adjust proactive labour market programmes, and promote foreign investment in individual regions. The results of our research and recommendations arising from it could also serve to support the creation of National Employment Service programmes and systems intended to monitor and evaluate them.

Another equally important aim of the study is to provide a useful analysis and framework for practical action by emerging local employment councils, made up of local authorities, trade unions, chambers of commerce and industry, employers' associations, employment agencies and services, schools and universities, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders contributing either by virtue of their position or by will to resolving the issue of unemployment. We have endeavoured to design a simple framework to help them find answers to key questions, such as those relating to the main advantages and drawbacks of the economic and social environment and the labour market in their communities.

We hope that this book will draw the attention of the professional community to the need for a more intensive and exhaustive analysis of the issue of unemployment, and one going beyond the already somewhat tiring debate on what ‘actual' unemployment in Serbia is. This study, relying as it does in its assessment of unemployment levels and figures solely on registries maintained by the National Employment Service ^[1], which significantly overestimate ‘actual' unemployment levels, in no way attempts to answer this question. In fact, unemployment is without a doubt the best known and most important, but certainly not the only, indicator to be borne in mind when discussing the situation and perspectives of a labour market, be it a local, national, or global one.

Finally, we hope that the extensive database we have collected in the course of preparing this study will continue to be updated, and that our colleagues, students, and all other interested parties will use it often.

Authors:

Svetlana Aksentijević , Head, Statistics Department at the National Employment Service of the Republic of Serbia

Mihail Arandarenko , Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade

Andrea Brbaklić , Head, Public Relations Service, Erste Bank, Belgrade

Dragan Đukić , Director, Employment Sector at the National Employment Service of the Republic of Serbia

Maja Jandrić , Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade

Milena Jovičić , Professor, Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade

Radmila Katić-Bukumirić , Assistant to the Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Policy

Svetlana Marković , Associate Researcher, Sector for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Banca Intesa, Belgrade

Aleksandra Nojković , Assistant Lecturer, Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade

Galina Ognjanov , Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade

Marina Vojvodičan , Associate Assistant, Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade