Category: Author’s post

They opened a new pre-departure orientation information centre at Kazakhstan’s Labour Mobility Centre in Turkistan

A new pre-departure orientation (PDO) information centre was launched at the Labour Mobility Centre (LMC) in Turkistan, a city of over 200,000 people, on 4 November. The Ministry of Labour, Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan and IOM Kazakhstan spearhead this centre seeking to improve the experiences of local citizens who are considering migration to other countries for work. Key information and support will be provided by the PDO information centre to labour migrants to help them make informed decisions and prepare them for their journey ahead.
Satybaldy Darkhan Amangeldiuly, Mayor of Turkistan, explained that Kazakhstan wants to protect the rights and well-being of its migrant workers and give them all the knowledge and resources necessary for a safer and more productive migration experience.
The UK International Development from the UK Government funds IOM with the goal to provide vital capacity-building assistance to the LMC, including the launch of a dedicated hotline, comprehensive training for hotline operators and LMC staff and the provision of essential equipment.
Kathy Leach, British Ambassador to Kazakhstan, noted that the number of Kazakh workers coming to the UK under British Seasonal Workers Scheme has increased significantly over the last few years – from just 4 people receiving a seasonal worker visa in 2019 to 4,423 in just the first half of 2024.
A safe and secure forum to ask questions and address fears and concerns is provided by pre-departure migrant training courses. The skills and awareness necessary to successfully adapt to new societies can be developed and crucial advice on accessing support channels while working abroad are offered to workers by migrant training. Facilitation of the integration of women gets a particular attention.
Serhan Aktoprak, Chief of Mission at IOM Kazakhstan, Country Office with Coordinating Functions for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan added that ultimately, pre-departure trainings at a dedicated PDO information centre strives to empower labour migrants to adapt more rapidly and successfully to the day-to-day demands of their new environment and to enable them to better navigate the services in place.
The regional IOM project “Safe Migration of Seasonal Workers from Central Asia to the United Kingdom” includes the inauguration of the PDO information centre in Turkistan as its integral component. Enhancing the protection and well-being of seasonal agricultural workers from Central Asia and contribution to the continuing economic development of participating Central Asian countries are main goals that this initiative seeks to achieve.

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Serbia will lack 100,000 workers in the next decade

The Institute for Innovation and Development (IRI) reports that, despite the potential for creating a unified labour market among Western Balkan countries, labour migration within the region is minimal and directed toward European Union countries.
According to an analysis presented at the conference “How to Increase Labour Mobility in the Western Balkans”, the future of the region will be shaped by the labour market. Higher incomes and better working conditions will make Serbian workers move to far more developed EU countries, and Serbia will face a shortage of 80,000 to 100,000 workers in the next decade.
Miodrag Milosavljević, Deputy Director of the Open Society Foundation, acknowledged the impossibility to prevent migration, but he called for a balanced approach between inflow and outflow to ensure continuous development, as a lack of workforce hinders the growth.
Unfortunately, the data from IRI researcher Milica Anđelković Đoković report the persistent outflow of workers to Western Europe.
Dragan Todorović, president of the Independent Union of Belgrade, said that apparently only foreign workers recruited from distant countries who are not intending to stay come to Serbia. They do not work for lower wages than locals but instead face “time-dumping” in their work hours.
Todorović warned that instead of working five days for eight hours, foreign workers work six or seven days for 10 to 12 hours a day, so appear to employers to be more productive. But it actually doesn’t mean a higher productivity, but a simple denial of labour rights. These workers will return home or move on, if they are more educated or resourceful.
Bojan Stanić, Deputy Director for Strategic Analysis at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, noted that solutions are on the horizon, despite the difficult situation. According to him, it is necessary to create regional labour market in the Western Balkans as short-term measures, but even this has its limits, as worker shortages are faced by all regional economies, and no one wants to ‘pull’ workers from another country, diminishing their growth potential. Stanić explained that the solution was to attract returnees, who have been educated or started careers abroad by offering them not only the opportunity to work and earn but also to further develop in a healthy, environmentally-friendly setting.
As Nenad Jevtović added, joint participation in a unified labour market by regional states, drafting National Economic Migration Strategies, as Serbia has done, and improving infrastructure were included in some of IRI’s recommendations. He warned that it is impossible to expect high labour mobility if it takes hours to travel between Skopje and Niš, or if the only efficient way to get from Belgrade to Tirana is by plane.

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Regional differences in Serbia in employment and construction

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia’s publication “Regions in the Republic of Serbia” reports that 40% of Serbia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is generated in the Belgrade region. The Vojvodina region has a 26.4% share. Then come the Šumadija and Western Serbia regions with an 18.4% share and the Southern and Eastern Serbia region with 15.2%.
The publication says that the GDP per capita in the Belgrade region is 58.3% higher than the national average (1.6 million dinars). The average monthly income per household reached 87,973 dinars in 2023, while household expenditures for personal consumption attained 88,244 dinars (an increase by 12.2% compared to 2022).
Regular employment is the largest source of cash income (52.5%), followed by pensions (30.9%), income from agriculture, hunting, and fishing (4%), in-kind consumption (2.6%), income outside of regular employment (2.4%), social security benefits (2.4%) and 5.2% from other sources.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages have the largest share of personal consumption expenditures (36.8% on average, 37.9% in the Southern and Eastern Serbia region and 34.5% in Belgrade).
The largest share of expenditures for housing and utilities (electricity, water, or gas) is held in the Šumadija and Western Serbia region (16.6%), while the smallest one is in the Southern and Eastern Serbia region (16.1%).
Construction work carried out in Serbia in 2023 had the value of approximately 717 billion dinars.
Vojvodina was the leader in 2023 (31%), followed by the Belgrade region (28.4%), Šumadija and Western Serbia (25.2%). The Southern and Eastern Serbia region was last (15.3%).
Buildings had a share of 40.3% of the value of work.
Transport infrastructure, pipelines, communication and electrical lines, complex industrial facilities and other unspecified buildings had a share of nearly 60% of the value of the work.
Residential buildings had a share of 40.1% in the value of work, and non-residential buildings’ share was almost 60%.
They completed a total of 35,652 apartments of the average size of 75.5 m² in 2023.
The average net salary in Serbia in 2023 was 86,007 dinars, while the average gross salary was 118,599 dinars (nominal increase by 14.8% and in real terms by 2.4%, compared to 2022).
The Belgrade region had the highest average net salary, amounting to 109,431 dinars (nominally 15.4% higher than in 2022).
The Šumadija and Western Serbia region had the lowest average net salary (71,642 dinars).
The Belgrade region had the highest employment rate (55.5%) and the lowest unemployment rate (7.1%). The Southern and Eastern Serbia region had the lowest employment rate (44.7%). In the Vojvodina region and the Šumadija and Western Serbia region the unemployment rate was 9% and 9.8%, respectively. The highest unemployment rate at 12.8% was recorded in the Southern and Eastern Serbia regions.

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Open Balkan ID Initiative is about to take off in spite of difficulties

The Open Balkan ID Number, launched six months ago and marking the start of a single labour market between Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, had some teething troubles. The Open Balkan initiative is envisaged as a vehicle to remove barriers to the free movement of goods, services and people, currently taking in European Union membership […]

50% of employees in Serbia consider changing jobs

Important information that helps decision-makers adapt strategies to meet the real needs of employees, improve working conditions and further strengthen their position in the market is provided by the “What Keeps Employees Going” research.
In Serbia it was conducted jointly by Osiguranik, Infostud, Rezilient and Tim Centar.
744 decision-makers from companies of different sizes were involved and 2,710 employees from various sectors were surveyed.
According to the results, flexibility in work remains high on employees’ priority list. The most desirable benefits are flexible working hours, the possibility of a four-day workweek, working from home and additional days off, followed by voluntary health insurance.
Wellbeing issues (stress, loss of energy, and lack of motivation) were mentioned by nearly all respondents (94%). 59% of respondents admitted that these issues significantly affect their productivity at work.
The research shows that eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) is at a very low level in Serbia, with an average score of -46, which indicates that most employees are dissatisfied with their work environment. Only 14% would recommend their company as a good place to work, while 60% of respondents openly express negative opinion about their company.
According to this statistic, 50% of the employees are thinking about changing jobs. A tendency to move to another company within the next year is especially evident with younger generations.
The focus of the HR sector on talent retention is the good news for 2025. Employee opinions may be changed due to the employee experience improvement, leadership skills strengthening and soft skills development.
Attraction of new talent as a tool to ease the hiring process for those looking for new job opportunities is considered by 36% of companies.
According to the salary policy statistics, 60% of employees are roughly aware of their colleagues’ pay in spite of proclaimed global trends in salary transparency. Part of the salary is paid “under the table” to 17% of employees, and the entire salary is paid in cash to 3% of employees. A need for wage system improvements, salary increases and greater transparency in companies is indicated by the fact that only 18% of employees are satisfied with their current earnings.
Numerous other insights about the labour market in Serbia, including topics such as feedback culture, working from home, and answers to questions like to what extent managers influence employee motivation and whether they truly want to be in their current position in the company are revealed by this research.

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Serbia’s statistics office reports almost 3 million employed

As the Republic Statistics Office (RZS) said on Friday, almost 2.9 people were employed in Serbia in the second quarter of 2024 according to a labor force survey.
A press release reported that the LFS data for the second quarter 2024 show that the number of the employed persons was 2,899,700, the number of the unemployed persons was 257,800, while the number of the population outside the labour force was 2,484,400.
According to this data, the employment numbers increased by 48,400 and the unemployment numbers decreased by 44,800. It demonstrates the growth of the employment rate (51.4%) by 1.1 percentage points (p.p. and the decrease of the unemployment rate by 1.4 p. p. and was 8.2%. A decrease of the rate of the population outside the labour force was 0.4 p.p.
According to the RZS, the total rate of informal employment was 11.8%. In the agricultural sector it attained 51.7% and in non-agricultural sectors 5.9%.
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Ruling party’s “ambitious goal” for country’s budget to exceed $18.2 bln and for average salary to attain $1,277 by 2028 is highlighted by Georgian PM

The party’s “very ambitious goals” ahead of the October 26 parliamentary elections for increasing the country’s budget to exceed ₾50 billion ($18.2 bln) and raising the average salaries to ₾3,500 ($1,277) by 2028 was announced on Monday by Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s election staff and the Prime Minister of Georgia.
The “significant increase” in average salaries over the past decade was highlighted by Kobakhidze in his address at the presentation of the party’s election program. He noted that in 2012, the figure stood at ₾712 ($260), while “today that number has risen to ₾2,005 ($731)”.
According to the PM, these projections were based on “reliable data”, which the country’s final budget would reflect. He was also confident in the “accuracy” of these forecasts and in the possibility of such an increase of average salaries in the country.
The PM expects the national budget to exceed ₾50 billion ($18.2 bln) by 2028, and many projects will be implemented due to this rise.
“Peace”, “economic growth” were called by PM as key factors in Georgian Dream party’s “high” rating.
The country’s financial trajectory was highlighted by Kobakhidze. He says that in 2012, the budget equaled to ₾8.5 billion ($3.0 bln) and by 2024, despite the existing challenges, it “has increased to nearly ₾28 billion ($10,2 bln), owing to the economic growth”.
Unemployment has been halved from 26.7 percent in 2012 to 13.7 percent at present.
According to Kobakhidze, 1,217,000 people had been employed in 2021 and 170,000 new jobs had been created in the last two and a half years. They promise to provide at least 200,000 additional job opportunities by 2028 at this pace.

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25 thousand people yearly have quitted Serbia forever over last decade

According to a recent study titled “The Mobility of Serbia’s Workforce,” conducted by the Institute for Development and Innovation, over 25,000 people have permanently left Serbia each year for more than a decade.
In the first seven months of this year Serbia has issued around 50,000 work permits to foreigners, mostly from China, Russia and Turkey, while Serbian citizens predominantly head to Germany and the U.S.
Institute director Nenad Jevtovic says that Serbia’s current work market situation has immeasurably improved compared to 2008, when there were nearly one million unemployed in the country. Now this number is 296,000, and many of these people are temporarily unemployed, i.e. between jobs.
Jevtovic stated that global economic trends and the fact that Serbia “has been war-free for 25 years” have led to these statistics. She also added that, therefore, “one has to be seriously untalented for economic policy to not achieve improvement.”

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Migrants from Kazakhstan will get a paved way for labor in South Korea

The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Kazakhstan reports that South Korea wants to let Kazakhstanis legally work in the country by including Kazakhstan in its Employment Permit System (EPS).
According to the agency’s statement, the intention of representatives of the Ministry of Employment and Labor of the Republic of Korea to include Kazakhstan in the EPS was confirmed following the negotiations. It will let Kazakhstanis work legally in South Korea under the signed employment contracts.
Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Labor and Social Protection Askarbek Yertayev reported that a number of comprehensive measures to enhance the legal framework to protect labor and social rights of migrants is being taken, such as establishing a multifunctional center for professional and language training in Almaty for those who want to work in South Korea.
Measures aimed at combating illegal migration and fostering favorable conditions for the expansion of legal labor activities are being taken by his agency in collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MFA) of Kazakhstan.
Seoul’s willingness to develop close cooperation with Kazakhstan was announced last year by Park Jin, former minister of foreign affairs of South Korea.
Nevertheless, as Aibek Smadiyarov, the official spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s MFA, emphasized, Kazakhstani citizens can legally work in Korea only after receiving special approvals and labor visas arranged by their employers.
The mutual visa-free travel agreement allowing citizens of both states to stay in the other country for 30 days was resumed by Kazakhstan and South Korea in April 2022.
They also resumed direct air travel between Kazakhstan and South Korea (Astana-Seoul) this summer.

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Social dialogue in the Republic of Serbia is strengthened by teaming up ILO, Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs and social partners

A new project “Strengthening of social dialogue in the Republic of Serbia” was launched on 18 September to strengthen social dialogue in Serbia. An environment where the rights and obligations of workers and employers are well-balanced, contributing to the development of a more stable, equal and successful society, the ILO (International Labour Organization), with funding from the European Union, is created by the government, employers and trade unions.
The value of the new project for the support of international partners and the capacity to respond to challenges was pointed out by Minister for Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs Nemanja Starović.
According to Emmanuel Julien, ILO Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, social dialogue should not be just an abstract set of rules, but a process with formal and informal aspects, customized to Serbia until it is a mature, useful, result-oriented, and recognized part of the society.
The contribution of the new project to the improvement of working conditions for all workers in Serbia was stressed by His Excellency Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret.
Zoran Mihajlović, the Secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia, expressed his happiness about the start of this project and his belief in necessity of strengthening of the framework of social dialogue. He said that it is the task on which all the parts should work seriously, diligently and with dedication, because the situation is not exactly what it should be.
According to Čedanka Andrić from the Trade Union Confederation NEZAVISNOST, the implementation of the project is expected to lead to a greater role for bipartite and tripartite negotiations and to stop the fragmentation of the labour law.
As Miloš Nenezić, President of the Union of Employers, explained, the support of the ILO and the EU is necessary for strengthening of social dialogue in Serbia as it is at a really low level.
Mr. Nenezić said that it is essential to prevent problems and address new challenges proactively to improve Serbian society, but it can only be done through a formal discussion of all three parties of this partnership, on the national, regional and local level.
Regulatory analyses, tripartite discussions and consultations and practical negotiation training will be undertaken to implement the 2.5-year project. All partners, namely the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, workers’ and employers’ organizations, the Social and Economic Council, and the Agency for the Peaceful Settlement of Labour Disputes of the Republic of Serbia will strongly support it.

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