The Macedonian companies’ challenges while trying to secure labor force are huge and we are trying to deal with them, but we have to understand that the sane challenges also apply for the companies from the entire region, as well as in the EU, Fatmir Bitiqi, Vice-PM for Economic Affairs said on Monday.

“Last year one quarter of the EU companies reported problems in production because of lack of labor force”, Bitiqi said.

Bitiqi also mentioned the Macedonian problem with low wages, illustrating his statement with an interesting statistics.

“At this moment, the Macedonia Employment Agency offers – and can’t fulfil – around 10,000 job position, while having around 115,000 registered as unemployed! The problem is that the majority of the workforce is not trained for the positions offered”, Bitiqi explained.

Vice-PM Bitiqi addressed the liberalization of the labor market, by enlarging the quotas for foreign workers, which are currently at 5,000 for the entire country, emphasizing that it cannot be a permanent solutions, because the local workers have priority.

“The labor force must be primarily acquired from domestic resources, recruiting our unemployed citizens, however, their skills and knowledge do not correspond to the needs of the labor market. Hence, thee Government is trying various forms of qualifying or requalifying the labor force to enable them to enter the labor market”, Bitiqi concluded.