Author: Ina Allkanjari
Erisa, the 31-year-old from Tirana shows the challenges she faced while knocking on the doors of employment offices at a difficult moment in her life.
" After 8 years of working as a call center operator, I took maternity leave. In 2021, I returned to work and after a month I was fired due to staff reductions. It was a very difficult period for me, my daughter was only 13 months old and the expenses were high. I decided to contact the labor office in Tirana. I sent letters for assistance and to look for work ," says Erisa, expressing that she managed to obtain assistance for a 4-month period with difficulty.
Erisa is one of about 150 citizens who turn out to be job seekers, 79,517 of whom are unemployed job seekers registered with public employment offices. A figure which has marked continuous growth throughout the last decade. The capital carries the highest burden of job seekers with 78%, showing a significant gap compared to other regions. According to the National Employment and Skills Agency, the official unemployment rate in Albania is 11.0%.
The 31-year-old woman says that she sought qualified employment at the employment office, after she had completed her higher education and wanted a more secure future, trying to find a job in the profession.
"I was never notified about work. I did not receive any phone calls or notices from the employment office about job offers. I have completed my higher studies in Geology in Tirana and asked the employment office for employment opportunities in the profession. But I never got an answer from them. Today I work again in the call center as an operator".
Erisa is one of the job seekers in Albania, whose case shows the need for coordinated actions and joint efforts to address the challenges of the labor market.
The continuous increase of job seekers
The "Dua Pune" platform presents the graph of job seekers registered in this system throughout the last decade, specifically from 2015 to 2023. From the data of the index, it can be seen that their number has increased from year to year, where currently there are 146,856 citizens registered as job seekers.
Eljana Mete, Executive Director of duapune.com, tells about the battle that job seekers face, and the competition that appears in the job market in Albania.
"We have 40-50 new positions every day, then if this is multiplied by almost 50-100 applications for each position, because it depends on some positions, it is more difficult to apply, you imagine and see for yourself than the how big and how important is the demand of job seekers to find work".
While there are about 11,075 companies registered near this platform, offering approximately 82,975 jobs, the number of job seekers is almost twice as high compared to the employment spaces offered in Albania. This discrepancy highlights the imbalance between job seekers and the opportunities available in the country's employment market.
"We noticed that skilled jobs are a little easier to be oriented. As for the jobs that are lower or less qualified, I find it a little more difficult to orientate or apply".
The jobs that are most sought after by citizens are skilled jobs, where the demands in the finance, engineering, art and television sectors prevail, but the employers' demands are different.
"If we talk today about resorts or tourism as a whole, it is a big headache when we talk about the lack of manpower, especially for waiters, bartenders or sanitary workers, reception, and these are the positions that have been most sought after this year. There are changes now in the real estate market, there are many changes in the construction sector, the tourism sector. To talk about the "boom" that tourism has had this year and the need for job positions that had to be filled in resorts or anywhere in Albania".
Regarding the age group of job seekers, the highest weight of them registered on this platform is occupied by the 35-44 age group, followed by the 25-34 age group.
Luneda Lamaj, Director of the Directorate of Public Relations at the National Employment and Skills Agency, talks about the challenges of aligning the market requirements with the skill sets of job seekers. It underlines the dynamic nature of the labor market, where skill requirements change rapidly, leading to mismatches between job offers and applicant profiles.
"We can say that one of the challenges we encounter the most can be the mismatch between the supply and the demand of the labor market. As the skills required in the market are moving rapidly every day. So what the labor market is looking for because of this dynamism that is felt may not match the skills that the people who go to the job office to look for a job may not have".
According to the reports published by the National Employment Agency, the number of job offers is 52% of the number of unemployed jobseekers registered in all ZP, but if in the regions of Tirana and Fier this figure goes to 86% and 62%, respectively, in the districts Kukës and Dibër ranges from 9-18% of the total number of registered unemployed jobseekers.
During the year 2022, the employment offices enabled the employment of 28,984 unemployed jobseekers. Of these employments, only 12,363 were realized through direct mediation by employment offices and 2,176 employments were realized through the implementation of new PNPs, while another 14,391 citizens are unemployed jobseekers who found work themselves.
58% of registered unemployed jobseekers are over 40 years old. While it is noted that 31% of the total number of employed unemployed jobseekers are young people up to 29 years old. The smallest chances of employment seem to be in the large age groups over 50 years old, which account for only 14% of the total employed, despite the fact that they make up about 34% of registered unemployed jobseekers.
"The labor market is necessarily dynamic and all this movement that occurs in the labor market cannot depend only on one institution, which is the National Employment and Skills Agency, because as I said, the market is dynamic and there are many other actors who operate in it. The sectors that dominate the most are the hotel and tourism sector, the tailoring sector where the labor market needs it, the information technology sector, which are in greatest need of the workforce," says Luneda Lamaj.
Meanwhile, in the reports published by the Employment Agency, it is noted that 33,769 individuals are registered as long-term unemployed, indicating continuous challenges in securing employment.
On the other hand, many young people who have just finished school or university encounter difficulties in finding a job opportunity, causing difficulties in integrating into the labor market.
"Through the professional practice programs, all recent graduates are treated and given the opportunity to perform a paid practice in public and private institutions", says Luneda.
Klea Teokolici tells Signal that she went to the employment office in the city of Elbasan to secure a work experience near the university where she studied.
"Two years ago in October, I went to the employment office in Elbasan to look for an internship at the University of Elbasan, as I was pursuing my Master of Science in Environmental Protection. When I registered as a job seeker, I sent the documents they asked for and told them that I was interested in any type of job, as long as the schedules were flexible, but the primary thing for me was an internship at the University of Elbasan. They told me that they would look for employment opportunities or paid internships that fit my profile ," says the 23-year-old, emphasizing that during the period she was waiting, if she found a job on her own and declared herself insured, her name was automatically removed from the waiting list.
"Since I was a student, I did not look for work in other ways, but I stayed for 8 months waiting for an answer from the employment office. In May 2022, I was contacted and told about the possibility of a paid internship at the University of Elbasan. I started the internship on June 16 until December 16, so the internship lasted 6 months."
Labor market and skills mismatch
Economy expert Enriko Ceko tells about the development of the labor market in Albania and the changes that this sphere has undergone in recent years.
"The labor market in Albania has always been in an amorphous situation, it has never been a truly crystallized market, due to the successive changes that have occurred in the Albanian economy starting from the 90s".
He notes that the lack of specialization has affected the skills of the workforce and has caused job applicants' requirements to not match the needs of businesses. "In general, Albanians get specialization in the workplace at a time when they actually need to have specialization before entering the job they are looking for ," he emphasizes.
The lack of connection between universities and the private sector has been a fundamental problem in the education system. Ceko claims that businesses rarely seek out students who can match their employment needs. “ It is necessary to change not only the public sector’s approach to employment but also the private sector’s approach to cooperation between institutions, be it higher education institutions or business organizations.”
He also talks about the problems in employment offices, noting that they offer very little real help with job requirements.
" When the employment offices were first built, they had the concept of helping people who lost their jobs due to the reform. Not for those people who just finished school to go and register at the employment offices so that the employment office can offer them some opportunities. A good part of the Albanians looking for work have lost hope of finding a job and their only hope is to turn to emigration or illegal work."
The economic expert expresses the need for a reconfiguration of the concept of the employment office in Albania.
"A young person who has just graduated from school, who has been looking for work for a period of 3-6 months and has not been able to find a job, should go and register with these employment offices, have the right to register with these employment offices and be offered at least 3 opportunities, as has been the rule. If he does not use these three opportunities, then he does not have to seek service from the employment offices anymore," says Ceko.
This article was created based on input provided by individuals who have chosen to speak up. Share your story, empower others and be an agent for change. Visit the website: www.acqj.al/sinjalizo-dhe-ti/
