Old crafts used to be the backbone of economic development in the Sember plain. Today, you can count on the fingers of one hand the excellent masters of the craft who have managed to preserve the tradition. With the development of industry and the introduction of fiscalization, more than 3.000 craft shops were shut down.
”After fiscalization, we had a drastic drop in the number of craft shops. Working conditions are really difficult, entrepreneurial waters are demanding, uncertain, but also grateful. In some times before the pandemic, those who loved their craft invested in themselves, their equipment, they were rich, independent economically, with a secure existence,” Mile Stevic said, President of the Chamber of Crafts and Entrepreneurship.
”I am the only one of these old craftsmen who still works. There may be some other tinsmiths somewhere, but today it’s all industry. All these people have large plants and warehouses, but it is very difficult with classic craft shops,” roper Selim Sabanovic pointed out.
He says that there is no one to continue the tradition: ”Young people find it difficult to deal with crafts, you see that educated people also leave this country because they have no perspective. We are already getting a little old, and we love crafts, so we are here to preserve a tradition.”
But it’s not just old crafts that are dying out. There has long been a deficit in the labor market for craftsmen. The enrollment policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) educational institutions is not harmonized with the real needs of the labor market and contributes to the fact that new staff only fill places in the records of the Employment Service of BiH. On the other hand, labor shortages are recorded in manufacturing occupations. The working group determined the postulates according to which the enrollment procedure will be conducted.
The mass emigration of labor from BiH to European Union (EU) countries has led to a shortage of thousands of workers in the real sector. Currently, the wood processing industry, the construction, and craft sectors are shortage occupations. Also, the hospitality industry has a shortage of chefs, and agricultural production is largely declining due to labor shortages. This is supported by the fact that during the past year, the fruit growers of the Majevica region did not manage to find enough workers to harvest plums, despite the daily allowance of 80 BAM.
E.Dz.
