One of the challenges that countries in Southeast Europe (SEE) are facing is unemployment. The governments in the past two decades have created policies on opening more jobs, however the countries need to join forces in order to improve the situation.

This was stated at a two-day regional conference on employment and social inclusion in SEE and Turkey, which was opened Thursday in Skopje.

The average unemployment level in Western Balkan countries is more than 20% and employment rates generally are 43%, which is the lowest share anywhere in the world, according to Cihan Sultanoğlu – UN Assistant Secretary General and UNDP Regional Director for Europe.

“Creating a growth with jobs is the key towards erasing the moniker attributed to this region as being ‘Europe’s poor periphery’ – this is the challenge that is the focal point of this conference,” said Sultanoğlu adding that in the past two decades policies had been implemented to open new jobs as outdated educational systems had been adjusted so as to fulfil the gap of skills that were needed on the labour market.

Minister of Labour and Social Policy Dime Spasov said Macedonia was on the right path with respect to this matter stressing that the unemployment rate had been reduced from close to 40% to 27.6% in the past several years.

“As of 2007, annually the government is adopting operational plans of active programs and employment measures that define the ongoing employment measures, target groups, concrete activities and timetables. The fact that over 36,500 people have found employment between 2007 and 2014 through the employment measures – which in Macedonian circumstances in a serious number – speaks volumes that the approach to address the unemployment issue is fully justified,” Spasov stated noting that a new operational plan had been adopted this year envisaging another 8,200 people to be employed.

To reduce the unemployment rate is a top priority of the government, he added referring to the employment measure focused on people aged 29 and younger under which approximately 8,000 people were employed within a year.

“Every serious country has a vision about the future of its young population. The challenge of every young person to find the right job and to provide for their families in their own home country serves as a motivation to us, the government, to think and find ways on how to enable that,” Minister Spasov underlines.

The government recently has launched a project of employment measures that covers a wide range of citizens and is expected to significantly contribute to cutting down unemployment.

The Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, Goran Svilanovic said that job creation required coherent and coordinated policies to create an economic growth and inclusive jobs. According to him, this requires a sustainable macroeconomic policy and a climate favourable for investments, solid human capital and improved entrepreneurial skills, particularly amongst young people.