TIRANA, March 11 – Albania’s unemployment rate hit a record high for the past 14 years at the end of 2014 when it climbed to 18 percent, up from 17.1 percent in 2013 and 14.1 percent in 2012, state statistical institute, INSTAT, said in its latest labor force survey.
INSTAT reports the number of unemployed people aged from 15 to 64 rose by 15.5 percent to 227,407 in the final quarter of 2014 compared to the end of 2013. Youth unemployment which includes people aged from 15 to 29 rose to a new a historic high of 33.9 percent, up from 25.4 percent at the end of 2013 and 23.6 percent in early 2012.
Unemployment rate for people who have completed only secondary education rose to 24.3 percent at the end of 2014, compared to 19.8 percent for those holding a university degree, 13.9 percent for those who have completed secondary vocational education training and 14.5 percent for those who have only finished compulsory education.
An overwhelming majority of 87.5 percent of jobless people say they address friends and relatives to find a job.
The quarterly survey found that 9.1 percent of youth and 14.3 percent of adults aged from 30 to 64 years old are discouraged workers, meaning they have given up searching for a job.
INSTAT data show some 140,000 Albanians had registered themselves as jobless with regional employment offices at the end of the final quarter of 2014, accounting for a registered jobless rate of 13 percent, down from 13.4 percent at the end of 2013.
INSTAT says 41.8 percent of employees at the end of 2014 were employed in the agriculture sector, compared to 22.5 percent in market services, 17.1 percent in public services, 9.3 percent in the processing industry and 8.1 percent in the long-ailing construction sector.
The minimum wage in the final quarter of 2014 remained unchanged at 22,000 (Euro 154).
The INSTAT survey in the final quarter of 2014 was based on answers by some 5,040 Albanian households nationwide.
INSTAT data shows Albania’s employment has increased by 72,000 people since the third quarter of 2013 when the Socialist Party-led government came to power led by employment in the private non-agricultural sector, but also the formalization of the black market workers.
In the run-up to the June 2013 general elections, the Socialist Party had promised to create 300,000 jobs if it was given a four year-term.
