Top industries cut staff, wages

TIRANA, Feb. 15 – Short-term turnover statistics published by INSTAT show an improvement in the performance of almost every sector including crisis-hit construction sector as proven by the quarterly GDP report published this week.
However, the short-term statistics measuring turnover indices in industry, construction, hotels, wholesale trade, transport and communication show almost of these industries are cutting staff and lowering wages.
The situation is more problematic in the industry sector, whose processing, electricity and water branches cut industrial production by 1.9 percent compared to the third quarter of 2010. As a result, these industries have cut 11.5 percent of their staff and lowered wages by 0.9 percent. The extracting industry, which is attracting more and more international oil exploration companies, saw a sharp 62 percent increase in the turnover index y-o-y hiring an additional 15 percent staff and raising wages by 28 percent, INSTAT reports.
The construction sector, failing to recover since 2008, suffered another 9 percent cut in the number of employees. Job cuts were also reported for wholesale trade despite rising turnover due to the peak tourist season.
Hotels also cut their staff by 9 percent compared to third quarter of 2010. During the second quarter of 2011, the Albanian economy grew by 0.5 percent year-on-year but shrank by 1.7 percent compared to the first quarter of 2011, proving the severe situation the Albanian economy is facing by managing to escape contraction only by a margin. Key sectors of the economy such as industry, post-telecommunication and construction registered negative growth rates compared to the second quarter of 2010.