Balkan countries take measures to help youth find jobs

Balkan countries take measures to help youth find jobs

Regional countries are subsidising temporary employment and paid internships to help young people find jobs.

Enterprising young people, such as this pair in Sarajevo (above), used billboards in the past to attract employers' attention. The sign reads: "I am looking for a job!" [AFP]

Balkan countries are using a variety of methods to stimulate the job market for young people in hopes of providing long-term economic stability.

In Serbia, where youth unemployment exceeds 51 percent and the majority of those have no work experience, employers in 32 municipalities are encouraged to hire people younger than 30 for a period of two months.

The measure is part of USAID's youth employment programme in which the employees receive a salary that is 60 percent of the country's minimum gross salary.

After two months at the job, company owners decide whether they will offer the youth permanent employment.

"[It] offers us the opportunity to see whether the young worker is suitable for us after two months, while it also offers the youth the opportunity to obtain work experience," Radivoj Milisavljevic, a hotel owner in Soko Banja, told SETimes.

Milisavljevic hired a tourist guide and two waiters through the programme.

"This experience means a lot to me because I know I will remain at this job and in the future find another one more easily," Teodora Vlatkovic, who is working at the Soko Banja hotel as a tourist guide, told SETimes.

In Macedonia, the government subsidises training, internships and temporary employment.

Its First Chance programme aims to provide university educated people younger than 30 with work experience and an...