SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 27 (ONASA) – Last night, the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament unanimously adopted the Employment Strategy in the Federation of BiH for the seven-year strategic period, and before its final adoption, there was still confirmation by the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina faces, like most of the region, the absence of quality employment program policies, as well as the increasing outflow of quality labor to international labor markets, which is a long-term problem, especially if negative demographic and population trends are also taken into account , that is, as experts forecast, the expected changes in the structure of the population that overlook an increase in the share of the elderly population by some 75%, and at the same time, it is predicted that the number of the working-age population will be halved.
With the increased emigration of the young, qualified population, where according to reports from the civil society sector, about 5% of the total population has left the country in the past few years, and the accelerated aging of the population, given that 15% of the total population is over 65 years old, long-term problems are expected for the entire society and far-reaching consequences.
An increase in the dependency ratio (children and the elderly on the working-age population) is expected, which will put the economic burden of covering the costs of public services, such as education, health care, social care, including pensions, on the working-age population.
Depending on economic factors, despite everything, employment opportunities are opening up, and in order to direct employment policies in the right direction, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, in cooperation with the International Labor Organization and other partners, prepared a seven-year Employment Strategy in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which adopted last night at the session of the House of Representatives.
The recruitment strategy consists of three parts.
In the first part, the situation on the labor market in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was analyzed, in the second part, policies aimed at solving challenges in the sphere of employment were determined, while in the last part, operational aspects concerning the implementation of the employment policy were presented.
The employment strategy in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2023 – 2030) through four strategic goals aims to contribute to increasing personal employability, developing and improving the alignment of skills with the requirements of the labor market, promoting the capacity of companies in the private sector to open formal jobs, ensuring inclusion in the labor market that is difficult employable categories through more effective active labor market policies, and strengthening of labor market management and increased capacity for policy implementation.
The strategy, among other things, recognizes the Youth Guarantee as a completely new model of employment for young people who leave the education system and those who are left without employment. The youth guarantee guarantees finding a job within four months of registering on the unemployment register, and as such it is a mechanism by which, I hope, we will stop the departure of young people from this country.
“Young people who enter the Youth Guarantee process have one of four options: employment, continuous training, internship or internship. The piloting of the Youth Guarantee has already started, and we have chosen smaller communities, Visoko and Čitluk, as pilot municipalities. After piloting, which is the basic requirement for the preparation of the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan, the implementation of the Youth Guarantee as a new employment model will be extended to all areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Federal Minister of Labor and Social Policy Adnan Delić.
He also emphasized that the goal of the Youth Guarantee is to reduce youth unemployment and inactivity.
“By implementing it, the member states and candidates for EU membership undertake to ensure that all young people receive a quality offer for employment, continuing education, learning through work or internship within four months of entering unemployment status or leaving, i.e. the end of formal of education”, the minister added.
He also said that the Employment Strategy also recognizes the economy of care, which is a model that tries to recognize unpaid services in the labor market, which are mainly performed by women, who, according to available research, take a larger share in the percentage of the unemployed, in the category of people who are more difficult to employ.
“In addition to the above, I must also add the Law on Mediation in Employment and Social Security of the Unemployed, which is also recognized in the Strategy, and it is with this law that we will try to reform the institutes and services for employment and separate the records of active from passive job seekers. All together, in the next seven years, it should contribute to the improvement of the situation on the labor market in the Federation, and therefore also in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, concluded the minister.
The FBIH employment strategy is rich in content and comprehensively connects all activities in the field of employment initiated in the Ministry for the mandate period until 2026, as well as the overall strategic period, announced the Government of FBiH.