The Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs has formed a working group to create a list of deficit occupations, aiming to address Serbia’s long-standing labor shortage. Key sectors in focus include IT, construction, catering, trades and drivers.
Toplica Spasojević, president of ITM Group, stressed the need for strategic planning to tackle the labor crisis, warning that global factors like the European economic slowdown, U.S. tariffs and the war in Ukraine could worsen the situation, possibly leading to factory closures and job losses in Serbia. He highlighted that while Serbia’s IT exports grew significantly, there is still a shortage of essential trades.
Spasojević emphasized that improving domestic working conditions must come before importing foreign labor, although he fears that companies may continue hiring from abroad due to low worker mobility within Serbia.
Miloš Turinski from “Infostud” pointed out the importance of Serbian language requirements for foreign workers, especially in customer-facing roles like sales. He noted that while Serbia’s unemployment rate has dropped to 8%, the country clumsily handled the initial wave of foreign worker imports.
The upcoming list of deficit occupations is expected to include construction workers, electrical engineers, waiters, cooks, and IT experts. However, Turinski warned that artificial intelligence could replace many basic IT jobs, stressing the need for Serbia to develop experts in AI, cloud technologies, and big data to stay competitive.
