Labour Unions claim real unemployment rate twice higher

TIRANA, Feb. 23 – Labour unions claim the real unemployment rate is at least twice higher compared to what state institutions like INSTAT and government officially declare. During a meeting of the National Labour Council on Tuesday, the head of the Confederation of Trade Unions Kol Nikolla said “the real unemployment rate in Albania varied from 22 to 34 percent based on regions and professions but always counting as employed even seasonal workers or homeworkers.”
Finance Minister Ridvan Bode dismissed figures announced by the trade unions saying that they were what the opposition Socialist Party and its leader Edi Rama claim.
Bode said he believed Institute of Statistics data which say the unemployment rate is dropping.
Latest INSTAT data show the unemployment rate at the end of the third quarter of 2010 climbed to 13.52, up from 12.76 percent during the same period in 2009, but down 0.26 percent compared to the second quarter of 2010.
Labour officials say some 140,000 unemployed jobseekers are registered with employment offices.
Despite criticism, INSTAT says that calculating all people who own land as self-employed is in compliance with the methodology used by Eurostat.
Data show private companies hired only few hundreds of new employees in the third quarter of this year, a sign proving the financial difficulties small and medium-sized enterprises as well as corporations are experiencing.
The unemployment rate registered its sharpest increase at the end of 2009 when it climbed to 13.75 percent, up from 12.68 percent at the end of 2008.
Regional comparison shows Albania’s unemployment rate at 13.5 percent at the end of September 2010 is far better compared to Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, standing at 4 percent more than the EU 27’s average of 9.6 percent.