Employment of foreigners – perspectives and opportunities, is the topic of the conference that was held today in Sarajevo, organized by the Agency for Labor and Employment of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the financial and technical support of the project Employment and Social Affairs Platform (ESAP 2) in the Western Balkans, which is implemented within the framework of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), and is financed from EU funds.
Director of the BiH Labor and Employment Agency, Muamer Bandić, stated the basic challenges that the labor market in BiH faces when it comes to the employment of foreigners. He emphasized that, on the one hand, we have the need of employers to hire professional labor, while on the other hand, we still have around 360,000 unemployed people.
“Furthermore, we have a trend of labor leaving BiH in search of better working conditions, and a negative demographic trend. The education sector does not yet follow the needs of the labor market at a satisfactory level and this problem will be even more pronounced in the future,” stressed Bandić.
Amira Ramhorst, leader of the Employment and Social Affairs Platform (ESAP 2) project, spoke on behalf of the RCC ESAP2 project, who said that they are happy to have the opportunity to support the Agency for Labor and Employment of BiH and thus at least in a small way respond to the demands of a very relevant topic – employment of foreigners in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The representatives of the employers stated that they are facing a deficit in the employment of a certain profile of the workforce, primarily in the construction sector, processing industry and catering. Also, employers pointed out the problem of unreliable records of unemployed persons, because they contain a very large number of people who are not actively looking for work, do not want to work or work illegally and are not available for new employment.
The position of the employers is that attention should be paid to the really unemployed people in BiH who want to work, but until that happens, because this implies a significant change in the legal solutions, it is necessary to enable employers to hire workers from abroad in those areas where there is a deficit of professional workforce.
