Agricultural employment shrinks
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TIRANA, May 28- According to official data by the Albanian Institute of Statistics (INSTAT), the structure of employment by sectors was shifted from agriculture to services and production. The trade and services sector accounted for 25.7 percent of total employees over the past year, with a 0.7 percent increase compared to 2017.
Also, the weight of the manufacturing sector also underwent an increase in the employment structure. Factory employees accounted for 10.6 percent of the total in 2018, from 10.1 percent a year earlier. The construction sector also reflected an expansion in employment as it occupied 7 percent of the total. The industry and public administration sectors on the other hand experienced a decline in the share of the total employed.
Albania is the most agricultural country in Europe but has the highest share of imported food to total imports. Although agriculture accounts for about 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), Albania imports more agricultural products than it exports. In the other regional countries, agriculture accounts for a smaller share in the total economy, but provides higher output and exports than Albania.
Referring to World Bank (WB) data for 2016, Moldova ranks second after Albania in Europe for the size of agriculture with about 14 percent of the total economy, followed by Ukraine with 13.7 percent. Then the list is followed by the Western Balkan countries. Agriculture in Kosovo for example accounts for 19.4 percent of the GDP. In Macedonia it is 10 percent, in Montenegro 9 percent, in Serbia 7.9 percent, and last comes Bosnia and Herzegovina with agriculture comprising only 7.7 percent of the country's GDP. In developed European countries, agriculture accounts for less than 5 percent of the economy, with the lowest level being recorded in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom by less than 1 percent.
The paradox is that even though we are the most agricultural country in the whole of Europe, we have the highest share of imports for the group of food commodities. Referring to INSTAT data on imports over the years, the share of food imports to total imports is 11.4 percent. This high importing might be also affected the low employment in the sector, among other factors, such as low turnovers, emigration, etc..
