In recent years, the labor market has increasingly highlighted the demand for skilled craftsmen. Statistics reveal a shortage of these workers, who can choose jobs more freely than ever before. Employers are offering benefits such as accommodation and emphasizing urgency in hiring painters, plumbers, and electricians.
However, amid the growing focus on craftsmen, questions arise about the demand for highly educated professionals.
Data from the job portal Poslovi Infostud provide clear insight into the other side of the labor market. Contrary to some perceptions, job ads requiring university degrees have not disappeared. Between 2020 and the end of 2024, a total of 118,627 job postings explicitly requested candidates with higher education degrees. The peak was in 2022 with 30,483 ads, while in 2024 there were still 21,326 such postings—significantly more than during the pandemic in 2020, when there were 16,752.
While the number of ads for highly educated candidates has decreased somewhat from its peak, it remains substantial. Over 21,000 highly educated professionals are still sought annually, indicating that this labor segment remains valuable—just less in the spotlight.
It is important to understand the context: the share of job ads for highly educated candidates is shrinking not because demand has disappeared, but because postings for secondary education-level jobs are growing faster. For example, in 2020, ads requiring higher education (high school, university, master’s) represented 38% of all listings; by the end of 2024, this share fell to 29%.
The IT sector accounts for the largest share of these ads, with a pronounced need for highly educated workers. Other sectors with strong demand include mechanical engineering, law, pharmacy, finance, marketing, human resources, education, architecture, healthcare, and more. In these fields, having a degree is not just preferred but mandatory.
Unlike trades, which often generate flashy media headlines, jobs requiring higher education tend to receive less public attention. Their recruitment processes are more selective and lengthy, targeting specific profiles rather than broad audiences. This can create the false impression that these jobs are less sought after, but data clearly show that they remain foundational to many economic sectors.
While skilled craftsmen are undeniably essential today, society and the economy also equally rely on lawyers, doctors, teachers, programmers, engineers, and other highly educated professionals whose knowledge and training sustain complex systems. These roles depend not only on hands-on experience but also on formal education.
