The government cannot cure Albania’s labor market ills by shoving skilled workers into low-pay jobs and call centers.
Having overpromised on its ability to deliver 300,000 jobs to Albanians, the Socialist-led government is now working hard to create an image of itself as a job creator.
It held a national job fair this week, promising more than 6,000 jobs. Instead, only 800 were hired. The problem is not in the numbers. Job fairs typically work like that, and hiring decisions might take place later as well.
The problem is the type of jobs the government wants to tout as a success story.
In trying to attract Italian investors to Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama specifically referred to the cheap labor costs this country can provide for investors interested in industries like shoe/garment manufacturers and call centers.
He is clearly reaching for the low-hanging fruit, but it is a strategy that can only work in the short term, and it is not necessarily the best one for Albania and Albanians in the long term.
Shoe/garment manufacturers (known in Albania as fasonet) have notoriously low wages that will do little to lift the economy in Albania. And Albania faces tough competition for them from even poorer countries in other parts of the world. They are just a small step up from unemployment and factories have known to close and ship out on a whim.
The call center industry pays better, but it too is riddled with problems. There have been repeated reports of employee mental mistreatment and a high stress environment in call centers in Albania, many of which are run by Italian companies.
But the call centers are also dream-killing machines as well, though this is not the fault of the companies that run them.
Albania’s higher education system is largely a pyramid scheme, churning up graduates the country simply does not need. So if you take a job in the call center as student, you are likely working next to a young engineer, lawyer or architect.
It is a social ill the government cannot simply cure by shoving skilled workers into call centers. It needs to come with a strategy to create good paying job in high-skilled positions. That’s the type of long-term strategy that can sustain Albania’s economy for decades.
A job is clearly better than no job. But for Albania’s economy to lift off, well paying manufacturing, IT and service jobs must be a large part of the equation as well. Albania can draw lessons places like Poland and the Baltics on how to get the balance right.
In other job news, on top of facing its own massive unemployment problems, this week Albania fully opened its labor market for people from Kosovo and the Preshevo Valley. It’s a patriotic gesture yes, but questions remain on whether it makes economic sense in the absence of a reciprocal agreement.
Worst yet for the job situation in the country, the government — which came into power with a promise of change — has also gone on a firing spree, taking a page from the book of its predecessors.
Some of the people being fired were political activists of the previous governing party who were not qualified to do the jobs they held. They deserve to be replaced with more qualified people.
However, many of the people being fired are experienced, apolitical folks being kicked out of their jobs so political activists from the Socialist and Socialist Movement for Integration parties can take their jobs.
That’s a shame. We expect better from this government. We expect better from this country.
This week, local media reported that all kindergarten and daycare employees will now need to have a master’s degree. Such reforms in Albania are code for “fire the old folks.” One has to wonder what will happen to the 50-year-old daycare worker who has 30 years of experience, when she (or he) is fired because “a master’s degree is needed.” They won’t be able to work ever again, while the children will be taken care of by the no-experience, no-name university graduates who will take the job only because of the political membership card they carry in their pocket.
