The Labor Market in Serbia values craftsmanship

A reality of the domestic job market shows that the salary of a baker in Serbia can exceed that of a doctor. This fact puts a security of graduated specialists in the job market in question.
Despite the shortage of skilled workers in trades, the needs are increasingly shifting toward workers with secondary vocational education and skilled tradespeople.
The specialized job-seeking site “Poslovi Infostud” conducted a research concerning trends in the job market from 2020 to the end of 2024. It showed that the share of job advertisements aimed at highly educated candidates decreased from 38 percent to 29 percent. Nevertheless, a different picture appears at a more detailed analysis – an actual growth of the number of these advertisements from 16,752 during the pandemic year of 2020 to 21,326 in 2024. The problem is that some segments of the market have grown even faster, such as skilled tradespeople, placing skilled tradespeople “in the spotlight.”
According to 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 (around 30 to 35 percent of the total number annually).
Drivers, construction workers, hospitality staff, and auto mechanics, chefs, hairdressers, painters, wallpaper hangers, carpenters, plumbers and waiters are in demand.
According to the NSZ, the structure of the economy, with such most represented sectors as manufacturing, construction, transport, and trade causes the increase in the number of advertisements for workers with secondary education. Another significant challenge for the domestic job market is the emigration of workers abroad.
The significant shortage in the market gives skilled tradespeople the “luxury” of selecting jobs and setting work conditions and of earning from 1,000 euros and upwards.
In education the situation is similar. According to the Minister of Education, Dejan Vuk Stanković, the projection for this year is that the starting salary in education will be 114,000 dinars. Low salaries have led to the lowest number of enrolled students in the last decade.
The NSZ expects the job market in Serbia to stabilize gradually in the future, due to economic growth, the development of the IT sector, services, and creative industries.
They also expect the field of artificial intelligence to grow. Interest in experienced workers in this sector remains high despite job optimization and a decrease in the volume of projects. Another trend with anticipated growth is foreign labor imports.
Skills rather than solely degrees are the main focus of employers. So, they value secondary vocational qualification supplemented with additional courses more than a degree. Nevertheless, the significance of higher education will remain.

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