Only 6 percent of the total registered jobless people benefited from unemployment assistance of 6,565 lek (65 USD), according to INSTAT
TIRANA, Nov. 22 – An additional 3,000 people, most of whom working in state-owned enterprises scheduled for privatization but also in public sectors will be laid off and awarded unemployment assistance next year, the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry says in its 2012 draft budget. The beneficiaries include current employees in Albpetrol oil company, which is 100 percent state-owned, workers in the former Distribution System Operator (OSSH) as well as in Albtelecom, whose minority stakes remain state-owned. Cuts will also be made in the public education and health sectors as well as the military forces in addition to expected private sector workers who might lose their jobs. For 2011, the government plans to spend around 1 billion lek, $10 mln on unemployment assistance for some 11,000 people. The Labour and Social Affairs Ministry says the 2012 budget for this ministry will be at 53.5 billion lek or 3.84 percent of the GDP. Compared to the reviewed 2011 budget, this ministry will benefit from an additional 6.5 percent or 3.3 billion lek. Latest data from the country’s state Institute of Statistics show Albania’s official unemployment rate dropped to 13.26 percent in the second quarter of 2011, down from 13.78 during the same period in 2010 and 13.43 percent in the first quarter of 2011. INSTAT data show that the number of registered jobless people during the second quarter of 2011 dropped to 142,068 down from 142,836 in the previous quarter while the labour force climbed by 8,306 people to 1,071,581. Only 6 percent of the total registered jobless people benefited from unemployment assistance of 6,565 lek (65 USD). The number of unemployment assistance beneficiaries in the final quarter of 2010 dropped to 9,509, some 992 people fewer than the previous quarter. The number of people employed in the private agricultural sector, including rural areas where inhabitants possessing land are automatically calculated as self-employed, remained unchanged at 506,664 people based on the results of a 2009 labor force survey.
