Category: Author’s post
Draft visa-free agreement between Kazakhstan and Morocco is approved
The resolution of the Government of Kazakhstan decides to approve the draft agreement between the Government of Kazakhstan and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco on exemption from visa requirements for national/general civil passports holders.
The document grants the citizens of Kazakhstan and Morocco an exemption from visa requirements for entry, exit, transit, temporary stay in each other’s territory on the basis of valid national/general civil passports, in case if the duration of each period of stay does not exceed 30 calendar days within a period of 180 days from the date of their entry. Another condition is that passports must be valid for at least three months before their expiration date.
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Read morePublic sector workers will get increased salary
According to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, a salary increase of eight percent will be received by the entire public sector and a 12 percent salary raise will be received by teachers and preschool educators.
Vučić said that this constitutes a real increase in the standard of living, not only for Serbian teachers, but also for preschool educators, if inflation is 4.2 percent, as their salaries will be increased by 12 percent, which is 50 percent more than for other public sector workers, thus showing the government’s commitment to education.
The president also said that negotiations with some foreign universities have already been initiated by the government to bring them to Serbia to reduce study costs for local students.
He emphasized on the possibility of bringing parts of those universities or their departments and building their campuses in Serbia instead of sending students to Italy, Switzerland or the United Kingdom. According to him, the goal of the state is to keep people here.
Vučić highlighted that the government will try to subsidize these parts or departments of foreign universities to make their costs lower than abroad, taking into account that their living expenses are already much lower. It will prevent the parents from the necessity of being separated from their children to provide them with a good education.
The President of Serbia stated that competition among Serbian private and public universities will also be encouraged by this. He highlighted that universities will have to provide much better education if they want to attract students. The students need knowledge, not just diplomas.
Excellent news for the country’s poorest workers and pensioners is Vučić’s proclamation of the decision to increase the minimum wage by 13.7 percent, to 53,592 dinars, and to raise pensions by 10.9 or 11 percent.
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Read moreDouble-digit growth in turnover and production value in Georgia’s business sector is reported in Q2
As the National Statistics Office of Georgia said on Tuesday, a growth by 11.6 percent year-on-year was shown by the total turnover of the business sector in Georgia in the second quarter of 2024 (₾53.6 billion ($19.93bln) and a 12.5 percent year-on-year increase was reached by the production value (₾20.5 billion ($7.62bln).
66.5 percent of the total turnover were constituted by large businesses as key drivers of the sector’s growth. 15.1 percent were made up by medium-sized businesses and 18.4 percent were contributed to small businesses.
Nevertheless, production value was distributed in a slightly different way: 46 percent were accounted for large businesses, 24.3 percent for medium-sized businesses and 29.7 percent for small businesses.
The total purchases of goods and services carried out by enterprises rose by 8.3 percent year-on-year and amounted to ₾28.3 billion ($10.52bln).
The average number of individuals employed in the business sector reached 769,900 employees (an increase by 4.4 percent). 43.6 percent of the total workforce were female and 56.4 percent were male.
According to the statistics office, large businesses employed the majority of people (43.6 percent), small business employed 36.5 percent and medium-sized businesses employed the remaining 20 percent.
A 3.4 percent increase compared to the same quarter of 2023 was shown by the total number of employees (724,000).
According to analysis of the distribution of employees by region, the highest percentage of employed individuals (65.7 percent) was in Tbilisi, then followed the Black Sea region of Adjara at nine percent and western Imereti region at 6.7 percent.
The average monthly remuneration reached ₾2,105.5 ($782.71) (an increase by ₾190.7 ($70.89) in the second quarter compared to the previous year.
Employed women earned ₾1,636.3 ($608.29) after an increase of ₾153.8 ($57.17) y/y.
The size of business influences average monthly salaries. For example, it is ₾2,538.1 ($943.53) in medium-sized businesses, ₾2,224 ($826.77) in large businesses and
₾1,653.6 ($614.72) in small businesses.
The leader in total turnover is the trade sector, including areas for repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles. Its share is 34.5 percent, closely followed by arts, entertainment and recreation (33.9 percent).
The leading sectors in terms of production value were manufacturing, trade, construction, transportation and storage (20.3 percent, 19 percent, 18.1 percent, and 9.1 percent, respectively). A 33.5 percent share was held by the rest of the sectors collectively.
The top three sectors for employment also included trade (wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles), manufacturing, and human health and social work activities with 28.4 percent, 11.8 percent, and 9.6 percent share of employees, respectively.
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Read moreIT workers fluctuate a lot in Serbia
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent slowdown in the industry make IT professionals in Serbia typically stay with a company for a few years on average. In spite of hope for market stabilization, experts in the sector are not optimistic about the future because of workforce turnover.
The recruitment agency BPS Tech reports that certain job profiles, employees and companies follow different tendencies: some of them focuse on outsourcing and others develop their own products.
According to the first ones, one reason for this situation is the predominant orientation of the market itself towards outsourcing (estimated at around 80%). Another reason is the importance for candidates of leaving their personal mark on the company by working on products. This makes the average retention in product companies higher. Candidates working for outsourcing companies often lack a sense of belonging and purpose, as they predominantly work on existing solutions that aren’t as interesting. Challenging projects, opportunities for advancement, variety of work/projects, work environment, salary and benefits are the most important factors influencing employee retention in a company.
Joberty, a platform connecting employers and candidates in the IT sector, reports that the average tenure of IT professionals in companies remains between two and four years. Nevertheless, the situation in the IT sector has changed significantly.
The demand for IT professionals increased during the COVID-19 period due to an expansion of IT projects and digitalization.
According to Milan Šolaja, Executive Director of the Vojvodina ICT Cluster, now employees value stability and job security more than in the pre-COVID period of somewhat reduced growth when workforce turnover was stronger.
As Miloš Turinski, PR Manager of the employment and career development center Infostud, says, a general tendency for the average time IT workers in Serbia work in one company has decreased.
He assesses that employee retention is longer in larger companies or well-known brands that often offer more stable jobs, better benefits and opportunities for professional development than in smaller companies and lesser-known brands.
The duration of tenure is primarily influenced by the seniority of an employee, as junior workers change jobs more quickly as they are still in the phase of discovering their interests and possibilities in the industry. Conrtavertly, seniors usually stay longer, especially if they are satisfied with their role and involved in the development of the team and company, but they too may be inclined to change if they encounter better opportunities or challenges.
Corporate culture is extremely important for more experienced candidates, which makes them stay in companies for an average of five to seven years, sometimes even longer.
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Read more95,000 dinars is an average net salary in June
The State Statistical Office reported that the average net salary in June 2024 was 95,804 dinars. The median salary is 74,185 dinars, and half of the employees earned less than that.
They calculated the average gross salary for June 2024 equal to 132,290 dinars.
The Republic Statistical Office stated that the growth of gross salaries in the period from January to June 2024, compared to the same period last year, was 14.8% nominally, or 9.3% in real terms, while the average net salary increased by 14.7% nominally, or 9.2% in real terms.
The increase of the average gross salary for June 2024 was 12.1% nominally and 8% in real terms, compared to the same month of the previous year, while the growth of average net salary was 12% nominally, or 7.9% in real terms.
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Read moreMinimum wage will reach 53,592 dinars in 2025
Representatives of the trade unions, employers, and the Government addressed the public regarding the results of their talks about increasing minimum wage after the session of the Socio-Economic Council.
According to Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, they agreed upon the minimum wage during the session for the first time in six years. It means that the Government will not have to make the decision unilaterally.
Miloš Vučević said that they agreed upon the increase of the minimum wage by 13.7 percent (308 dinars per hour, or 53,592 dinars per month) after many meetings, discussions and a lot of work. According to the PM, the minimum consumer basket from May (53,518 dinars) will be covered by this amount of the minimum wage.
As Finance Minister Siniša Mali mentioned, the non-taxable income threshold will increase to 28,432 dinars from January 1. A record-low unemployment rate of 9.4 percent was also highlighted by him.
A satisfaction with the outcome of the negotiations was expressed and the focus areas for the upcoming period were pointed out by the President of the Employers’ Union, Miloš Nenezić.
The sum of 62,000 dinars was demanded by the trade unions, the employers’ wish went slightly above 50,000 dinars, and a desire for the amount to be between 53,000 and 53,500 dinars was expressed by President Aleksandar Vučić.
Čedanka Andrić, President of the Nezavisnost Association of Trade Unions, said that fifty-six percent of the average salary provided a good starting point for the negotiations they will continue to have. He also added that he would have been much more satisfied if that amount could have been higher at the moment, but this is the kind of consensus that could be achieved.
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Read moreMore than 10,000 ethnic Kazakhs came back to Kazakhstan in January- July 2024
According to Kazinform News Agency, 10,134 ethnic Kazakhs have returned to Kazakhstan and received the status of kandas as of August 1, 2024.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection reports that 47.5% of the ethnic immigrants came from China, 37% arrived from Uzbekistan, 5.8% from Turkmenistan, 5.2% from Mongolia, 3.2% from Russia and 1.3% came from other countries.
59% of ethnic immigrants are people of employable age, 31.3% are underage children and 9.7% are pensioners as of August 1, 2024.
The majority of them were located in workforce-deficit areas, such as Akmola, Abai, Kostanay, Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan and North Kazakhstan regions.
Some benefits are provided to those settling in the abovementioned areas.
Firstly, each family member gets a lump-sum travel costs to the amount of 70MCI (monthly calculation indices) (258,400 tenge). Secondly, each family gets a monthly housing rent and utility allowance for the period of 12 months, amounting from 15 to 30 MCI depending on the number of family members (from 55,300 to 110,700 tenge).
Since 1991, 1,138,500 ethnic Kazakhs in total have come back to the historical motherland.
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Read moreStatistics office reports a 3.1% decrease of unemployment rate in Georgia in Q2
A new update of data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia shows a decrease by 3.1 percent of unemployment rate in Georgia in the second quarter of 2024 year-on-year and (13.7 percent across the country).
According to Geostat, the number of hired employees had increased by 2.1 percent (935,800 individuals), while the number of self-employed had increased by 10.1 percent (451,500).
The Office reported a 17.7 percent decrease of the number of unemployed in the same period (219,700).
An increase by 2.8 percentage points was shown by the employment rate (47 percent) and a 1.3 percentage points growth was demonstrated by the share of the labour force in the total population aged 15 and older increased by year-on-year (54.5 percent).
3 percentage points increase of employment rate was registered in urban settlements (47.9 percent) and by 2.5 percentage points in rural areas (45.8 percent).
The Office reported that 67.5 percent among employed individuals were hired employees (1.6 percentage points lower than the previous year’s corresponding period).
The decrease of the unemployment rate in both urban areas and rural settlements was by 3.5 and 2.5 percentage points respectively in Q2.
The rate was traditionally higher for men (2.6 percentage points down, 10.9 percent) than for women (3.6 percentage points decrease, 15.9 percent).
According to Geostat, the indicator of the labour force participation rate was 44.4 percent for women (increased by 1.5 percentage points) and 66.1 percent for men (1 percentage points up) in Q2.
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Read moreResidence permits to work in Lithuania must be obtained by Ukrainians without temporary protection starting from September 2024
Ukrainian refugees without temporary protection will need a residence permit since September 1, 2024 to continue working in Lithuania.
Before that, Ukrainians could work in Lithuania even without a permit, due to certain conditions they met.
So, these changes will affect all those who used the visa-free regime or had a valid Schengen visa, as well as those who had national visas issued based on unforeseen circumstances.
According to the explanation of the Lithuanian Department of Migration, as soon as the new rule becomes effective, Ukrainians without temporary protection will be able to work only after they receive their permit and not from the submission date. It is suggested that everyone takes care of their application ahead of time.
It makes a foreigner who is not entitled to temporary protection but unable to return to Ukraine due to hostilities and who has applied for a temporary residence permit on work or humanitarian grounds be entitled to work from the date of obtaining a residence permit, and not from the date of submission of their application.
Lithuania’s Department of Migration assures that Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war who benefit from the Temporary Protection Mechanism introduced by the European Union in Lithuania after the Department of Migration grants them digital residence permit will not be affected by such changes.
So, newly arrived war refugees can start work when they apply for a temporary residence permit to the Migration Department under temporary protection, as before.
According to Lithuanian authorities, Ukrainian employees will not have to meet language requirements (to speak Lithuanian) to work in the country for at least another year (until 2025).
The period during which “categories of knowledge of the state language will not apply to the employment of foreign nationals under temporary protection in Lithuania” that initially was two years after receiving temporary protection, has been extended to three years by the country.
The period of temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees was extended until March 2025 by the decision of the Cabinet at the beginning of this year.
The Ministry of Social Security and Labor reported that almost 30,000 Ukrainians have found work in Lithuania since the beginning of the full-scale occupation of Ukraine by Russia from February 2022 until February 2024.
According to an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) survey of Ukrainian refugees living in Lithuania, 70 per cent of respondents were actively involved in the labour force (73 per cent of men and 70 per cent of women), while 30 per cent remained inactive (27 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women).
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Read moreFuture employment challenges are navigated by Kazakhstan’s youth
There are many challenges for young people in the global labor market, in Kazakhstan as well. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports 73 million unemployed young people worldwide, with one in five engaged neither in employment nor in education.
Economic instability makes young people particularly vulnerable in the labor market. Having completed higher or secondary specialized education, many young people accept existing job vacancies not aligning with their needs, often outside their field of study, or remain unemployed for extended periods.
About 40% of the country’s workforce in Kazakhstan is constituted by young people under 35, and over 75% of them were paid employees in 2023. 40% of the young workforce are employed by the service sector.
Nevertheless, there are some obstacles that hinder young people’s career development and their ability to secure employment.
The first barrier is unemployment: the issue remains significant, although its rate in Kazakhstan was 3.5% in 2023, significantly lower than the national average of 4.7%. Young people without high levels of professional training are more likely to remain unemployed. Also, higher unemployment rates are registered among young women (4.3%) compared to young men (2.9%).
The second obstacle is informal employment, which young people are more frequently engaged in compared to adults, especially young men. Rural self-employed young people, especially those with low education and income levels, are the most affected by informal employment.
The third problem is the Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) category. Approximately 7.3% of Kazakh youth fall into it. The highest shares of NEET young people are in the Karagandy (10.3%) and Mangystau (10.2%) Regions, but this statistic varies significantly across the country.
As for the future of the labor market, it is necessary to mention a “demographic window” for economic growth that an increasing share of youth in its population will make Kazakhstan experience over the next 10-15 years.
Nevertheless, a declining birth rate and a growing elderly population will follow this temporary “youth bulge”.
According to international studies, younger workers are demanding new working conditions and emphasize on global trends like work-life balance. Flexible employment is another popular expectation among young people. At present, remote work is actual for less than 1% of Kazakhstan’s employed population, but, according to experts’ estimations, it has the potential for around 30%.
All these trends will make the labor market adapt to the younger generation’s needs and expectations. New employment models must be implemented and relevant educational programs must be developed by companies to prepare for these changes.
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