Deputy Prime Minister Verica Kalanovic said yesterday that Serbia can cope with the problem of unemployment through systematic measures and activities of several sectors, adding that changing the education system can also give a contribution to that.
Addressing the second forum “Arguments” on “Employment and the Crisis”, organised by the Foundation “Konrad Adenauer” and Business Info Group at the Tanjug news agency, she reiterated that Serbia is one of the countries with high unemployment.
We aim to get closer to European standards in this area, she pointed and added that unemployment rate in Norway is 3.5%, in Austria 4.4%, in Slovenia 7.3%, and approximately 11% in Croatia and Hungary, while it stands at 22.2% in Serbia.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that according to the National Employment Service data from 30 November, there are 735,000 unemployed people.
One third of employers say that the problem is inappropriate workforce, she said stressing that changes in the educational system are necessary.
One of systemic measures is the fight against gray economy, she emphasised and recalled that an intersectoral working group on reform of the inspection service has been formed.
She said that to reduce unemployment, the government introduced benefits for employers by reducing taxes and contributions, noting that the support to direct investments for job creation has yielded results in the previous five years.
During this period, 33,000 people were employed through the application of the programme to encourage investment, administered by the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA), she noted.
In this period, SIEPA set aside €164 million of incentives for investments worth approximately €1 billion, she emphasised, adding that the application of non-systemic measures, such as those conducted by the National Employment Service, create between 40 and 50 thousand jobs per year.
