Skopje, 29 January 2023 (MIA) – The time has already come to open discussion about the need for additional workforce on the labor market, Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi told Bloomberg Adria’s Zoom show, commenting on the need to import workforce as an inevitable solution to the labor shortage the country is facing.  

Bytyqi said that while work is underway on training and retraining a certain group of unemployed people in order to adapt them to the needs of the market, the country will have to find a way to address the outflow of workers.  

“There is labor shortage on the labor market, and we must respond to that challenge if we want to have accelerated economic growth,” Bytyqi pointed out.  

In response to Bloomberg Adria’s question if the qualified staff that the companies are looking for can be found in the 14 percent unemployment instead of importing workforce, the Deputy PM said the labor force is primarily made from those who are active job seekers in the country, but everyone’s conclusion has been that there is still shortage of labor in some sectors and specific qualified labor.  

Executive President at the Business Confederation Mile Boshkov and Chairman of the Council for Education and Strategic Research at the Chamber of Commerce,Gligor Bishev, also commented on the topic of import of workforce.  

“There is major shortage of labor on the market, so according to the standard of workers and wages in the region and beyond, we believe we will have to rely on workforce that we will have to bring from the Near and Far East, and possibly from other continents,” Boshkov told Bloomberg Adria’s Zoom show.  

Bishev noted that despite the unemployment rate of 14.2 percent, it is almost impossible to find people to work in construction, as well as in a large number of other industries, and in the hospitality sector.