In Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 21,000 workers lost their jobs in just one month in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the official data of the Agency for Statistics of BiH, 398,270 unemployed were registered in BiH in March, and that number in April was 419,582, which is 21,312 more of those who lost their jobs.
There were no layoffs in public administration, the same data show, and public administration, defense and compulsory social security even recorded a 0.1 percent increase in the number of employees in April compared to March.
Economist Zeljko Ricka told “Avaz” that many employers preventively laidoff their workers so that they would not end up on sick leave if they became infected with the coronavirus.
“In this practice, labor-intensive activities such as catering are at the forefront. The authorities, apparently, did not envisage protective measures to prevent this from happening, no deadlines were set within which the worker could or could not be fired. No protective measures have been adopted, and the unions have failed,” said Ricka.
He believes that the various types of assistance that BiH has received should be combined and that domestic production and domestic companies in general should be protected.
Economist Faruk Hadzic told “Avaz” that the progressive part of the profession has been warning decision makers in BiH about such consequences since the beginning of the pandemic.
He added that during 2019, four dominant economic sectors of manufacturing, trade, hotel and catering, and arts and entertainment had a share of 54.14 percent in the growth of total employment in BiH.
“In 2020, in the decline in employment, these four sectors participated with 89.58 percent, which proves the thesis that the decline in employment was predominantly in the economic sectors where the recovery will be slow,” explained Hadzic.
