TIRANA, Feb. 21 – The Ministry of Finance recently reported that only 49.6 percent of vocational school graduates are currently employed one year after finishing their studies, despite a growing interest in vocational education during the last few years. The youth unemployment rate during the third quarter of 2019 was 21.4 percent, which was 1.8 percentage points lower compared to the third quarter in 2018. However, in comparison to the second quarter of 2019, youth unemployment increased by 0.5 percent.
The economic growth in Albania over the past four years reflected significant improvements in the labor market, according to the Ministry of Finance. This is evident in the decline of the overall unemployment rate, seeing as by the end of the third quarter of 2019, unemployment stood at 11.4 percent from 17 percent in 2015.
Apart from these improvements, the unemployment rate remains high, especially compared to EU countries. Albania still faces significant challenges in ensuring safe work conditions for the working age population, as well as promoting higher productivity and ensuring integration into the labor market of vulnerable groups in particular, including the lower income class, women, the youth and other disadvantaged groups.
The Ministry of Finance stated that only less than half of the unemployed population seek employment through public employment services, indicating that employment offices and active labor market policies need to be better structured to assist the unemployed.
Issues on this matter have been persistent, as many voiced concerns over an evident decline in the workforce in Albania. Following the November 26 earthquake, Prime Minister Edi Rama called for the recruitment of foreign workers to assist in the reconstruction process. Sectors providing mass employment such as agriculture, tourism and masonry reported labor shortages; their representatives confirmed that labor shortages were a major concern for activity in 2019, with low wages and high immigration being the major causes of the phenomenon. Businesses in the masonry industry across the country from Shkodra to Gjirokastra announced that they faced serious labor shortages, as finding new employees has become a difficult mission due to the mass migration that has taken over the population of Albania.
Alongside asylum seekers whose number increased by 21 percent compared to 2018, many professionals have also left the country, mainly including nurses, doctors, engineers, IT specialists, with Germany as the preferred destination. During the last two years, nearly 6,500 nurses left the country, and so did about 150 employees of the staff at Mother Teresa University Hospital Center. Moreover, over the past year alone, according to data from the Doctor’s Order, 164 doctors left the country.
