Youth unemployment climbs to historic high of 34%

The unemployment rate for this category has increased by around 10 percent in the past couple of years rising from 23.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to 30.2 percent in early 2014 and 33.5 percent in the second quarter of 2014.
TIRANA, Sept. 11 – Youth unemployment climbed to a historic high of 33.5 percent in the second quarter of 2014, meaning one out of three people aged between 15 to 29 find themselves jobless, according to a labour force survey published by the country’s state statistical institute, INSTAT. The unemployment rate for this category has increased by around 10 percent in the past couple of years rising from 23.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to 30.2 percent in early 2014 and 33.5 percent in the second quarter of 2014. Youth aged 15 to 29 years old who said they were students or attending training accounted for 62.7 percent of young men and women economically not active.
With Albania’s average population age at 31, one of the youngest in Europe along with Kosovo, youth unemployment has become a top concern although most young men and women nowadays manage to get a university degree, unveiling the inefficiency of the education system but also crisis impacts as the private sector has almost frozen new hirings. Around 12.6 percent of youth aged between 15 to 29 are classified as discouraged workers.
Young people face a number of challenges when it comes to seeking gainful employment, such as a lack of skills and education to respond to the market needs. These challenges are compounded for youth with disabilities, who have even more limited access to higher education, says the UNDP which is assisting the Albanian government improve youth employment opportunities in the northern Lezha, Kukes, and Shkodra regions, where the rates are currently highest.
With university degrees not matching market needs, the Albanian government is promoting vocational education training whose students stand better chances to find a job.
Unemployment rate down
Albania’s unemployment rate dropped to 17.2 percent in the second quarter of 2014, down from 18.2 percent in the first quarter of 2014 but up from 16 percent in the second quarter of 2013 and around 13 percent in early 2012, according to a labour force survey with around 5,000 households nationwide.
INSTAT says 43.3 percent of employees in second quarter of 2014 were employed in the agriculture sector, compared to 22.2 percent in market services, 16.7 percent in public services, 8.4 percent in the processing industry and 8.1 percent in the long-ailing construction sector.
INSTAT data show some 144,131 Albanians had registered themselves as jobless with regional employment offices at the end of the second quarter of 2014, accounting for a registered jobless rate of 13.4 percent, down from 13.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014 and 13.6 percent in the second quarter of 2013.
The private non-agriculture sector has been the key driver of employment in the past year, hiring some 32,000 people from the second quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2014.
Employment in the public sector has remained almost unchanged at 163,800.
The private agriculture sector was estimated to have employed around 450,000 people in the second quarter of 2014.