Fiscal Council: Unemployment rate drop in Serbia down to less job seeking

The only reason the unemployment rate in Serbia dropped in the second quarter is that fewer people looked for a job, the head economist of the Fiscal Council, Danko Brcerevic, said today.

– The overall trends in the labor market in the second quarter were unfavorable, which is fully expected – Brcerevic said for Beta.

Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali yesterday said that the unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2020 was “at an all-time low of 7.3%”.

Brcerevic said that “the number of employees is in fact lower by over 70,000, that is, 2.5%, compared to last year and this is they key indicator of where the labor market is”.

– The unemployment rate is not that relevant at the moment. The fact that it was at an all-time low of 7.3% in the second quarter does not mean much – Brcerevic said.

He explained that, by the definition used in statistics, the unemployed are only those who are actively looking for a job and can't find it.

Fiskalni savet Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Fiscal Council of Serbia

Ministry of Finance

Danko Brčerević

unemployment in Serbia

unemployment

Siniša Mali

number of the unemployed

drop in the number of the unemployed