Category: Author’s post

Minimum wage in Serbia will attain 551 euro as of Jan 1

As finance minister Sinisa Mali said on Tuesday, Serbia’s government declared an increase of the minimum monthly net wage by 10.1% to 64,554 dinars ($647/ 551 euro) as of January 1, unable to reach an agreement on the hike with both employers and unions.
Before that, there was a 9.4% extraordinary increase in minimum monthly wage, as for October 1. As Mali said in a press release, the government will formalize the decision on the increase on Thursday, after a meeting of the Social and Economic Council, composed of representatives of the government, employers and trade unions.
According to local media, neither employers nor unions liked the government’s proposal for the increase of the minimum monthly wage to 551 euro as of January 1, made during the negotiations that started last month. Employers claimed to be overburdened with expenses and insisted on the minimum wage set at 500 euro, while unions highlighted rising electricity and food prices, as well as overall inflation acceleration and wanted the minimum wage to increase to 70,000 dinars. As the Beta news agency reported, both sides stuck to their positions during the Tuesday meeting.
Nevertheless, as Mali noted on Tuesday, the government will increase the non-taxable portion of minimum wages by 20.4% to 34,221 dinars to partly meet the demands of the employers. She also added that nearly 90,000 people work for minimum wage in Serbia.
There is a typical increase of monthly minimum wages in Serbia each January. However, the rising dissatisfaction over rising food prices as well as months-old anti-government protests that the collapse of the canopy at the train station in the northern city of Novi Sad on November 1 with 16 victims had triggered, made the government resort to the October hike. Also, President Aleksandar Vucic announced last month a set of measures aimed at boosting citizens’ purchasing power and standards of living, including capping retailers’ profit margins and offering lower interest rates on consumer loans, to address this discontent.
The most recent data available from the trade ministry reported that the minimum consumer basket in Serbia cost 55,870 dinars in May. The acceleration of the country’s annual consumer price inflation between June and July was 0.3%.
According to the statistical office, out of the Serbian population of around 6.59 million, about 2.37 million persons were employed in the second quarter of 2025.
Previously, there was a 13.7% increase of the minimum monthly net wage in Serbia in January.

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Employers who do not use e-Sick Leave will be fined for up to 500,000 dinars

The Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment has announced the beginning of the drafting of the Law on the Exchange of Data, Documents and Notifications in the Event of Temporary Incapacity for Work through the use of the software solution “e-Sick Leave – Employer” (e-bolovanje).
Representatives of state bodies and organizations, associations, business entities, the professional public, as well as other interested parties, may email comments, suggestions and proposals to this office at [office@ite.gov.rs] (mailto:office@ite.gov.rs) , with the subject: “Consultations regarding the Draft Law”.
Mandatory electronic communication between employers, selected doctors and the Republic Health Insurance Fund is introduced by this law for the first time.
The working version of the Draft states that all employers, companies, public enterprises, state administration bodies and local self-governments, as well as entrepreneurs who employ workers, will have to use the e-Sick Leave. This employer software solution will issue certificates and reports on sick leave, submit requests for salary compensation calculation, and access decisions of medical commissions.
According to the law, the selected doctor will issue certificates and reports on sick leave in electronic form, and the system will automatically forward them to employers and the relevant institutions. The system will also calculate salary compensation and submit electronic appeals.
They will fine employers who fail to use the system for a sum from 200,000 to 500,000 dinars for legal entities, and from 5,000 to 50,000 dinars for responsible persons.
For most employers, the date of coming of the law into force is 1 January 2026, while for small business owners it is 1 January 2027.

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New residency rules for foreign IT specialists in Georgia

Resolution No. 389 approved by the Government on August 27 introduced new rules for foreign IT professionals who live and work in Georgia.
The aim of the initiative is to strengthen Georgia’s position as a regional technology hub, to promote innovation and to attract highly skilled talents.
An applicant must prove his professional experience and financial stability (a minimum annual income of $25,000 and a certificate confirming at least two years of IT experience).
Labor immigrants officially registered in Georgia, individual entrepreneurs with small business status engaged in IT, and managers and representatives of international IT companies operating in Georgia will fall under the rules.
An official application with a unique registration code from the Ministry of Health’s electronic system, proof of identity and legal stay in Georgia, documentation confirming the income requirement, a recent photograph, and a receipt for the service fee are necessary.
An apostille must legalize all documents issued abroad. Nevertheless, they will accept electronic submission when international registries or other mechanisms can’t confirm authenticity.

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Agreement on minimum wage is not reached

As the second session of the Socio-Economic Council (SES) did not lead to any agreement on the minimum wage for 2026, the next meeting will take place on 29 August. In case of no agreement, the Government will make the decision on the minimum wage on 11 September.  A 10.1 percent increase in the minimum […]

Minimum wage will be frozen by Kazakhstan in 2026 in spite of earlier promises

As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin confirmed at a recent press conference, Kazakhstan will maintain its current minimum wage of 85,000 KZT per month (approximately $157) in 2026.
However, there is a contradiction between this announcement and earlier statements that Minister of Labor and Social Protection Svetlana Zhakupova had made in June. She indicated the intention of the government to raise the minimum wage from January 1, 2026. There was even a suggestion made by Finance Minister Madi Takiev to increase it to just over 90,000 KZT ($166). Nevertheless, Zhumangarin stated that they have scrapped the proposed adjustment.
He said that there are currently no plans to increase the minimum wage. As of today, it remains at 85,000 KZT, and there are no projects of increase at this time.
According to Zhumangarin, the government has allocated 800 billion KZT ($1.4 billion) in the 2026 budget to cover the costs of annual indexation of pensions and benefits to inflation. As Takiev added, they have made the decision to leave the wage unchanged while calculations had been made for a potential increase, “given the current situation”.
Last increase of the minimum wage took place in January 2024, from 70,000 KZT ($135 at the time) to its current level. There are calls for a broader review of the minimum wage, the minimum subsistence level, and the structure of the official food basket coming from some members of parliament.
During an interview, Zhumangarin recognized that he himself could not live on 85,000 KZT per month under current market conditions, but he also highlited the need of a cautious approach to the issue.
Also, the Ministry of Labor said that approximately 170,000 people in Kazakhstan currently earn the minimum wage, while another 160,000 earn around 100,000 KZT monthly. There are totally 9.3 million employed individuals in the country, as of the first quarter of 2025.
Nevertheless, Yelnur Beisenbayev, AMANAT parliamentary faction leader, criticized government statistics, particularly the official average salary figure of 423,000 KZT ($830).
As he remarked, three million people earn around 200,000 KZT in Kazakhstan, of whom 1.8 million live on the minimum wage of 85,000 KZT. Beisenbayev asked who earns 423,000. According to him, the government calculates the average wage in a wrong way – just summarizing the wages and dividing the total sum into the number of people.

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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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The number of entrepreneurs is growing, the number of farmers is falling

The latest data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia report that the total number of employed persons in Serbia in the second quarter of 2025 reached 2,370,103 (an increase of 0.1 percent compared to the same period last year).
Nevertheless, in spite of the general rise of entrepreneurship in the labour market, the number of agricultural workers is decreasing.
Workers in legal entities, totalling 1,898,531, still represent the majority of the employed, despite a slight decrease (by 485), compared to the second quarter of the previous year.
However, the number of entrepreneurs has also grown and reached 425,321, showing an increase of 7,070 individuals, or around 1.7 percent.
According to official data, there are just over 46,000 registered individual farmers in Serbia, and the number of agricultural workers continues to decline. The decline has attained 7.3 percent, or 3,652 individuals over the course of a year.
The reason of this situation is various issues for which the state has not provided adequate solutions.
There is a similar trend when the data for the second quarter of this year is compared with the first quarter. The increase of employment reaches 5,209 individuals, or 0.2 percent.
The largest increase achieved within this group of employed persons consists of 5,026 individuals, or 1.2 percent, with entrepreneurs again dominating in this case.
The decline of the number of farmers is repeated and general, especially in the second quarter. Then, the number of agricultural workers dropped by 882 individuals, or 1.9 percent, compared to the first quarter.
On the contrary, the number of those employed in legal entities demonstrated a slight increase by 1,065 individuals, or 0.1 percent.
Particularly, clothing factories have shown the biggest decline.
The sectors of protective and investigative activities achieved the highest year-on-year increase in employment (in percentage terms) – 27.7 percent). Then followed information service activities with a growth of 13.5 percent, and repair and installation of machinery and equipment with a growth of 9.9 percent.
On the contrary, architectural and engineering activities, leather and leather products manufacturing, and clothing manufacturing demonstrated the biggest decline (17.7, 15.4 and 12.2 percent respectively).
The reason of this trend is an increasing closure of foreign factories in Serbia, what leaves a lot of workers unemployed. This has also touched the clothing industry, taking into account the closure of Benetton factory in Niš at the beginning of the year.

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10,000 foreigners are deported from Kazakhstan amid crackdown on migration violations

First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Baurzhan Alenov reports the deportation of nearly 10,000 foreign citizens from Kazakhstan since the beginning of 2025 at a recent government meeting addressing migration trends and enforcement measures.

He also underlined a consistent rise in the number of foreign arrivals to the country. More than 7.5 million people entered Kazakhstan in the first half of 2025, while 7.2 million departed. It shows a net increase of 600,000 compared to the same period in 2024. Nearly 90% of those arriving came from post-Soviet states.

As Alenov stated, 97% of foreign citizens comply with migration laws. Nevertheless, there are more than 200,000 individuals who have faced administrative penalties. They have fined 46,000 for violating residency rules, and they have deported almost 10,000 with a five-year ban on re-entry.

Also, over 2,000 employers had to pay fines for the illegal employment of foreign workers. They have opened seven criminal cases against repeat offenders.

Nearly 212,000 foreign nationals reside in Kazakhstan on a permanent basis as of mid-2025. Almaty has the largest concentration (42,000), then follow the Almaty region (32,000), and both Astana and the Karaganda region (17,000 each). The rise of the number of permanent foreign residents over the past three years reached 42%.

There are also around 430,000 temporary foreign residents in Kazakhstan. Among them, there are 360,000 labor migrants, 8,000 students and 44,000 tourists. 17,000 foreigners arrived to reunite with families.

According to Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, it needs to enforce migration laws. Over 7,000 violations detected in May alone during nationwide operations are a clear signal for this.

Bektenov said that it is necessary to address such incidents promptly and actively implement digital tools, such as migrant ID cards, issued at border entry points, to improve monitoring and regulation.

The Prime Minister also gave the Ministry of Internal Affairs the instruction to tighten administrative oversight. He called on the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection to enhance regulation of private agencies involved in sending Kazakh citizens abroad for work.

Bektenov concluded that these agencies currently operate without accountability or oversight. He expects the Ministries to propose legislative amendments to require licensing of such activities by year’s end. Bektenov also instructed the Ministry of Labor to submit a draft Concept of Migration and Demographic Policy by October 1, aligning with the Concept of Regional Policy being developed through 2030.

According to the data collected by The Times of Central Asia, in 2025 the majority of foreign labor migrants have come to Kazakhstan from China, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and India. They work primarily in the construction sector.

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Employers have to choose between hiring a foreigner or shutting down the business

Data from the National Employment Service show a steady growth of the number of foreign workers in Serbia. They have issued over 52,000 work permits in 2024, mostly to citizens of China, Turkey, Russia, India, and Nepal.
Although it has become easier to hire foreign nationals due to recent amendments to the Law on Employment of Foreigners, there are some challenges that employers still face, from language barriers to the risk of workers leaving the company.
Equally, the employment of foreign labour in Serbia has become easier due to legislative changes, investment in construction, the emigration of domestic workers, and high demand for workers in the hospitality industry. Nevertheless, reports of an agreement with Ghana on the import of labour have been denied by the Ministry of Labour.
As Jelena Jevtović of the Serbian Employers’ Union told Insajder, there are worker mobility agreements between Serbia and many countries, which causes an influx of foreign workers.
As she noted, they have submitted reform initiatives for the education system for years.
According to Jevtović, the aim of a list of shortage occupations is to facilitate the implementation of the Law on Employment of Foreigners.
It is also necessary to mention the Open Balkan initiative when it comes to employing foreign nationals. Nevertheless, not many people have used that option to enter the domestic labour market.
Also, Insajder discussed with the interlocutor educational profiles that Serbian employers most commonly employ, the procedure, and obstacles are when hiring a foreign worker.
The amendments to the Law on Employment of Foreigners brought a general digitalization last year.
The police, the National Employment Service, and the Central Registry together issue the “single residence and work permit,” and the foreign worker collects it at the Ministry of the Interior.
Nevertheless, the employer can have problems with it, because under the previous regulation, there was the assurance that only he could employ the worker with the permit valid for one year.
It is also necessary to mention issues arising with foreigners from countries under the visa regime. Some of them take advantage of the possibility to travel to other countries after receiving residency approval in Serbia.
Jelena Jevtović also mentions the diverse situation concerning the structure of foreign workers in relation to the parts of the world they come from, and where most of them originate.
Nevertheless, she assesses experiences with foreign workers as mostly positive.
Although, as she says, most foreign workers are generally satisfied with the conditions, there are things they don’t like.

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Reducing Poverty through Employment and Structural Reform is Kazakhstan’s Social Spending Strategy

Kazakhstan is making efforts to improve living standards. Official statistics reports the decline of the national poverty rate as of 2024 to 5%, down from 46.7% in 2001 and the increase of the real wages by 21%. The country doesn’t rely on direct cash transfers for poverty alleviation, but on employment creation and integration into […]