In Kosovo, many businesses display “Worker Wanted” signs in gastronomy, retail, and construction. Paradoxically, the country reports high unemployment rates, which experts contribute to a mismatch between the skills in demand and the training sought in educational institutions.
Kosovo faces a paradox in its job market: while unemployment remains high, businesses in sectors such as gastronomy, construction, and retail struggle to find workers. Experts link this to a misalignment between market demands and students’ career paths, leaving certain skilled trades and services roles unfilled.
Over the last decade, a growing trend among youth has been to study fields that offer quick access to income or opportunities abroad. The perception that connections are necessary to secure stable employment in Kosovo has pushed many toward fields that sidestep such hurdles.
Kaltrina Aliu, a computer science student from Prishtina, managed to find employment before graduating from a private university. Aliu was set on choosing a career involving mathematics that requires problem-solving skills.
“I’ve found it incredibly interesting to see something created from zero,” she says.
Appreciative of her opportunity to quickly enter the job market, she worries about the motivation behind some of her peers’ choices.
“Many people study this field because it offers quick employment and good pay, not because they have a real passion for it,” she reflected, because “this profession enables that.”
Gaps in Vocational Sectors
‘Shopping Assistant Wanted’ sign at a retail store in Prishtina. Photo: BIRN
Fields such as information and communication technology, ICT, and medicine have seen surges in student enrollment, but there is a decline in many others such as Gastronomy, Construction, and retail industries with consequences observable throughout the labour market.
Rinor Qehaja from the Prishtina- based think tank EdGuard Institute notes that this disconnect is because of insufficient tracking of graduates who really possess the skills necessary to succeed in these fields. He explained that ICT and medicine have strong and quick employment outcomes, but that demand exists across all sectors.
“Much is misaligned with the real demands of the market and provides no benefit to graduates. Evidence of this lies in certain attractive study programmes that offer a clear path to career success and attract high enrollment interest, while, on the other hand, many other programmes struggle to attract young people, particularly in vocational schools.”
As a result, vocational high schools have offered scholarships to encourage students to pursue these high-demand fields. This academic year, with a memorandum from the Ministry of Education, the Albanian Language Department at the University of Prishtina decided to provide a 1,000-euro scholarship to all students who chose this programme.
Durim B., a manager at a popular pub in central Prishtina, pointeds out that one of the main challenges businesses face is the difficulty of finding long-term employees.
“Workers come, gain experience, then leave for opportunities abroad. Meanwhile, seasonal hires surge during the summer, mostly from high school or university students,” he explained.
Kosovo has a population of 1,586,659 people, according to the latest 2024 population census. According to data from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, as of 2023, the labour force participation rate is 40.7 percent, which means over 645,000 people comprise the labour force. Officially, the unemployment rate is 11.8 percent, however, according to the World Bank, the informal economy is around 35 percent%, meaning that labour data are not fully realistic.
Qehaja from EdGuard Institute told BIRN that the problem with the labour force is whether their skills match the market’s needs.
“The need for skilled labour spans all industries without exception. The issue isn’t with the number of graduates in each profile, but with whether these graduates possess the right skills,” he stateds, urging the Ministry of Education to align academic and vocational training profiles to market demands.
‘Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, and Veterinary’ remains one of the least chosen fields, with only 381 students (2.3 percent). According to a report by the Ministry of Education and Kosovo Statistics Agency for the 2015/2016 academic year, the University of Prishtina graduated 100 students from the Faculty of Agriculture.
The Ministry of Education responded to competitive demand for medicine, which attracted 2,000 applications for just 420 spots for the 2024/2025 academic year, by offering a 1,000 euros scholarship to students who choose underrepresented fields.
On July 17, 2024, Kosovo public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, reported that in the new academic year, 2024/2025, 137 students applied for the Albanian Language and Literature programme, which is 85 percent more than last year.
Meanwhile, a significant number of students continue their studies in private universities because of modern conditions and infrastructure, career opportunities’ assistance, and more agreements with potential employers and international universities. It is a practice of most private universities, differently from the public ones, to share job opportunities, mediate contracts, and offer language courses for students who want to work abroad.
A 2023 report by the Organization for Quality in Education, ORCA references data from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, showing that 71,835 students are currently enrolled in Kosovo’s higher education institutions. Of these, 41,212 are in public institutions, while 30,623 attend private institutions. In the 2015/16 academic year, over 12,000 students enrolled in these institutions.
A Growing Reliance on Foreign Workers
Workers on the construction site in Prishtina, Kosovo, 24 November 2020. Photo: EPA/Valdrin Xhemaj
A lack of coordination between the education programmes and the market needs, often leads Kosovo youngsters unable to find jobs and try to move abroad, or employees to face obstacles of constant recruitment and need for foreign employees.
Jusuf Azemi, head of the Private Sector Workers’ Union, told BIRN that “the job market here is fragile, especially after (January 2024) visa liberalisation, as most qualified professionals are now leaving. What remains are workers unfamiliar with the work they are doing,” he remarkeds, emphasising the need for a government-led initiative to align vocational training with market needs.
“There has been no coordination; there is a disconnect between these two realities.”
“Workers seek social stability, wanting to build healthy families and enjoy a good quality of life, which they struggle to find here,” he added.
Azemi fears that it is too late now for any measure as “a belief has formed among youth and workers that the only path to financial security and a better life lies in the West.”
Vesel Zhinipotoku, Director of the Quality Department at the Labor Inspectorate, stated that they receive complaints mainly from workers in the private sector.
“The majority of these complaints come from the private sector, though public sector cases are also not excluded,” he explained.
In 2023, the average gross salary in Kosovo reached 570 euros, up from 521 in 2022. The public sector saw a significant wage increase of 18 percent following the enactment of a new wage law. Average gross pay in the public sector rose from 624 euros in 2020 to 713 euros in 2023.
However, wage disparities are present across sectors. Public sector enterprises offer the highest average salaries, while the private sector lags, further pushing skilled labour abroad and introducing the growing demand for foreign employees.
Kosovo has increasingly issued work visas and permits to Bangladeshi citizens in recent years, mainly in the construction industry, because of difficulties in finding local labour. The influx of workers from Bangladesh into Kosovo has been so high that visa processing times have slowed.
“So far, around 700 work visas have been issued, and this number is expected to rise to approximately 1,900,” former Bangladeshi Ambassador Guner Urea told media in January 2024.
Bangladesh recognized the Republic of Kosovo as an independent state on February 27, 2017. Meanwhile, in 2020, Kosovo’s Ministry of Trade and Industry signed a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Government’s Plan to Tackle the Situation
Kosovo Government building. Photo: Atdhe Mulla
In the government programme presented during the 2021 electoral campaign, Prime Minister Albin Kurti promised curricula aligned with labour market needs.
“Scholarships and curricula that meet the demands of the economy will transform the education system,” he stated.
In September 2022, the Ministry of Education launched a pilot programme for dual education at the “Shtjefën Gjeçovi” vocational high school in the capital. This model combines theory with practical training, preparing students directly for the job market.
For fields where a more skilled labour force is required but few students are registered, particularly in vocational education, the Ministry of Education has offered annual scholarships of 500 euros since the 2021/2022 academic year, a practice that continued until 2024.
On September 3, Minister of Education, Arberie Nagavci, announced on Facebook that 100 scholarships would be awarded to students in 10th grade, in secondary professional schools.
As of the 2023/2024 school year, the Ministry of Education has expanded dual education—where students gain skills at the workplace in combination with vocational training at school.
Initially launched with profiles in culinary arts, hospitality, hairdressing, and masonry, dual education will soon include tailoring, auto mechanics, metalworking, and woodworking.
In addition to secondary schools, the Ministry also provides STEM scholarships of 1,000 euros per year for girls studying technology-related fields.
In 2024 USAID representatives and the University of Prishtina discussed possibilities to strengthen certain vocational skills. The University of Iowa is implementing the USAID project “Private Sector Partnerships for Strengthening Higher Education,” a five-year programme aimed at helping universities offer educational opportunities more aligned with the economy.
Moreover, by March 2024, nearly 9,400 people have benefited from the government platform Superpuna (Super job), which opened in 2023 and subsidises employers by covering six months of employee salaries at 264 euros per month.
Employers can choose to increase this salary and either retain the employee by signing a new contract or dismiss them after the subsidy period. As of March, the contracts with private companies of around 33 percent of beneficiaries of the Superpuna platform, a total of 3,108 young workers, were extended to regular contracts.