Craftsmanship as a Valuable Trade – The Labor Market in Serbia in Transition: Who is faring better today?
The salary of a baker in Serbia can exceed that of a doctor. This is not a joke but rather a reality of the domestic job market. A paradox is becoming increasingly evident: while many highly educated individuals, such as graduates in education, medicine, and journalism, spend months searching for employment and often earn barely above the minimum wage, young people with three- or four-year secondary school diplomas find jobs without difficulty. Thus, while one person completes a nautical school and earns above-average wages by the age of 20, another, after years of study, struggles to find a job in their field. Does a diploma still guarantee security in the job market, or have the rules of the game changed?
There is frequent discussion regarding the shortage of skilled workers in trades, which is indeed accurate, but simultaneously a misleading image has emerged suggesting that the market does not seek highly qualified or educated professionals. It is clear that the needs are increasingly shifting toward workers with secondary vocational education and skilled tradespeople, but this does not imply that degree holders lack their place “under the sun.”
According to research conducted by the specialized job-seeking site “Poslovi Infostud” concerning trends in the job market from 2020 to the end of 2024, the share of job advertisements aimed at highly educated candidates decreased from 38 percent to 29 percent. At first glance, this might suggest a declining interest in individuals with university degrees. However, a more detailed analysis reveals a different picture—the number of these advertisements has actually increased, from 16,752 during the pandemic year of 2020 to 21,326 in 2024. The problem lies in the fact that other segments of the market have grown even faster, thereby placing skilled tradespeople “in the spotlight.”
Explosion of Demand
The largest growth is seen in advertisements for candidates with secondary vocational education and skilled tradespeople. According to the National Employment Service (NSZ), there is greater demand for profiles in the areas of commerce and hospitality, transportation, tourism, trade, textiles, and service industries.
As noted by Miloš Turinski, the public relations manager of “Poslovi Infostud,” there have been about 120,000 job ads for candidates with higher education in the last five years, which is an impressive figure, although the need for lower-skilled jobs has indeed been greater. Nevertheless, the share of advertisements for highly educated individuals remains stable—around 30 to 35 percent of the total number annually.
However, due to a shortage of skilled tradespeople, the number of advertisements in this sphere is rapidly increasing. There is a deficit of drivers, construction workers, hospitality staff, and auto mechanics. In hospitality, there is a particularly high demand for chefs and waiters, while in the beauty industry, hairdressers are needed. The construction sector is lacking workers of various profiles—painters, wallpaper hangers, carpenters, and plumbers. In short, there is no sector that has been unaffected. In recent years, these sectors have experienced growth that even the IT sector, which dominated the market over the past decade, would envy.
There are multiple reasons for the reduced number of workers, the primary ones being relocation for better conditions and a lack of interest. As stated by the NSZ to NIN, the increase in the number of advertisements for workers with secondary education is primarily based on the structure of the economy, considering that the most represented sectors are manufacturing, construction, transport, and trade, where demand for employees predominates. Additionally, most trades belong to the category for which the necessary workforce is slower to provide, resulting in an increase in job advertisements.
According to NIN, the NSZ reported that the emigration of workers abroad represents one of the significant challenges for the domestic job market.
Craft and Knowledge on the Same Level
Skilled tradespeople, due to the significant shortage in the market, have the “luxury” of selecting jobs and setting work conditions, allowing them to earn from 1,000 euros and upwards, often resulting in a craftsman having a higher salary than a general practitioner. For example, hairdressers in better salons can earn up to 150,000 dinars, electricians the same amount, bakers around 180,000 dinars, metalworkers from 160,000 to 170,000 dinars, while advertisements for plumbers have even reached 200,000 dinars. In contrast, the salary of a general practitioner is approximately 120,000 dinars.
A similar situation exists in education, where there has been a long-standing struggle for increased salaries for teaching staff. The Minister of Education, Dejan Vuk Stanković, stated that the projection for this year is that the starting salary in education will be 114,000 dinars, which would only now align it with the average salary in Serbia. This, of course, is insufficient. Certain faculties training teachers are recording the lowest number of enrolled students in the last decade, clearly indicating that this profession is losing its appeal among young people.
New Players on the Field
Regarding the future of the job market in Serbia, the NSZ anticipates that the market will gradually stabilize in the coming period, with slight fluctuations. They believe that economic growth, the development of the IT sector, services, and creative industries will help maintain stable demand for specialists, and even increase it in some areas. As stated by the NSZ, changes in the structure of labor demand are directing employment policy toward strengthening training programs in areas where demand is highest—primarily in technical and skilled trades.
Growth is also expected in the field of artificial intelligence, while technical sciences remain a field of the future. The crisis in the IT sector is a consequence of job optimization and a decrease in the volume of projects, yet interest in experienced workers persists. Furthermore, the trend of increasing foreign labor imports is anticipated to continue. A similar situation is evident in other countries, such as Germany, which plans to import eight million workers by 2035 to meet market demands.
Employers are increasingly focusing on skills rather than solely on degrees. In this context, a secondary vocational qualification supplemented with additional courses can be valued equally to a degree, provided that the candidate demonstrates a willingness to learn and progress. Nonetheless, it remains a fact that higher education will not lose its significance; however, its advantage will depend on the candidate’s ability to build upon it, while formal education is treated as one of, but not the decisive criterion.
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