The National Employment Service issued a total of 50,397 work permits to foreign citizens in Serbia in 2023, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Employment.
The highest number of work permits was issued to citizens of Russia (19,645), followed by China, Turkey, India, and Nepal.
In seasonal agricultural jobs, a total of 1,091 foreigners have been engaged since the beginning of the year.
Seasonal workers can also be foreign citizens whose residence is registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Serbia. Engagement in seasonal jobs constitutes work outside the employment relationship, and the same conditions apply to the employment of foreigners as for all other individuals who are Serbian citizens.
The National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) stated that the total number of registered seasonal workers this year was 33,054, indicating that the percentage of foreigners is small compared to Serbian citizens, accounting for about 3.3 percent.
“Foreign citizens were virtually not engaged in seasonal agricultural jobs until 2021, after which a trend of increasing the number of registrations is observed. Over the last two years, the number of foreigners engaged in seasonal agricultural jobs has not differed significantly.”
Compared to 2022, when 967 workers were engaged, this year, the number increased by 124 registrations.
They also added that the largest number of foreign workers came from Uzbekistan and Egypt, while in previous years, workers from Nepal and India were engaged.
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