“The average youth unemployment rate in the Western Balkans was 35.1% in 2020,” Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretary-General, Majlinda Bregu, said in Sarajevo.
“The youth unemployment rate in the EU is less than half that percentage, i.e. 16.9%,” she said at the presentation of the study on youth unemployment in the Western Balkans, during a meeting on the EU-supported Platform for Employment and Social Affairs (ESAP 2).
“Part of the blame for the situation in the Balkans can be attributed to the pandemic that has stopped the creation of new jobs, but for the situation with youth unemployment to change we need to remove the cause of the problem, not only address its consequences,” Bregu said.
At the conference titled “Give young people a chance”, she said that, in 2020, youth employment in all six Western Balkan countries was below 27% and that there was a wide gender gap – the average employment rate in young women was 14.5% and young men 24.8%.
Bregu recommended the implementation of the Western Balkans Youth Guarantee, modelled on an EU programme that has helped millions of young Europeans to receive quality job offers, higher education, and internships or apprenticeships within 4 months of losing their job or completing their studies.
(N1, 31.05.2021)
https://rs.n1info.com/region/rcc-stopa-nezaposlenosti-mladih-na-zapadnom-balkanu-35-odsto/
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