In 2014 Serbian employers will create 7.7 percent of new jobs, but at the same time they will shut down 8.1 percent of the existing jobs, meaning the job rate growth will be – 0,4 percent, but as early as in 2015, employers plan to make this ratio positive by creating 2.6 percent new jobs compared to the number of the jobs lost. These are the main results of a Survey that covered over 6,000 employers, conducted by National employment service in the framework of the EU-funded project Support to evidence-based employment policy creation.
This is the fourth annual survey of this kind conducted in Serbia, provided that this year the survey was conducted both online and on the ground.
In 2014 employment growth is expected within the trade (4.7%), and transport sectors (0.9%) and other service sector activities (0.3%), whereas the decline in employment is foreseen within the following sectors: agriculture (-3.5%), mining (-2.6%), manufacturing (-2.3%) and construction (-3.8%) industries, as well as in financial services (-1.0%).
In 2014 employment growth is expected in the region of Belgrade (0.7%) and Vojvodina (1.0%). A nearly neutral rate of 0,1 percent is expected in South and East Serbia, whereas the negative growth is likely to occur in the region of Šumadija and West Serbia, -1.5 percent both.
Survey shows that the fastest growing occupations are those within the retail sector, as well as tailors, personal/asset security providers, simple manufacturing workers, ICT applications development practitioners etc. The slowest growing occupations are computer networking specialist, rail road brake, switch and signalman, foundry moulders etc.
The objective of the Employer survey is to collect the evidence on current employers’ demand in all sectors of activity in Serbia (except public administration and compulsory social security, education, other service sector activities, activities of households as employers, extraterritorial organisations and activities) for certain knowledge, competences and skills, as well as the evidence on their plans about the increase or reduction of jobs in 2014 and 2015.
Project team leader Mihal Kubiš says these information will be used for the preparation of active employment policy measures within the National employment action plan adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia; for local employment action plans development; future IPA-funded projects; as well as for the harmonisation of education and labour market.
„Employer survey is particularly important because it shows the employers’ demand for certain skills and is essential for service planning for the unemployed and employers on local level. To this end, the reports on Employers survey have been made for all of the 30 branch offices of the National employment service,” Mihal Kubiš stressed.
The objective of the project “Support to evidence-based employment policy creation”, that has been implemented in Serbia since September 2012, is to improve the impact of Serbian employment policy, to embed forecasting, monitoring and evaluation in the design and implementation of active labour market policies.
The project has three components – the first component is designed to assist the improvement of methodologies for forecasting, monitoring and evaluation and to assist the surveys conducted; the objective of the second component is to assist the preparation of National employment action plan for 2014 and 2015, whereas the third component aims to adjust the national classification of occupations to ISCO 08 standards.
More information about the project
Read the integral text of the main results of the Employer survey
