The shortage of workers is driving up wages more for elementary occupations than for those with higher education

2024-03-14 07:29:00, Ekonomi CNA

The shortage of workers is driving up wages more for elementary occupations than

Albania's economy is "hungry" for employees who have basic skills, mainly who use strength and not mind during working hours.

The official data from INSTAT show that in the last 3 months of the year, employees with elementary professions had the largest increase in the gross nominal monthly salary by about 16% in the last quarter of 2023 compared to the last three months of the year 2022.

The highest double-digit salary increases were also in the trade and services sector with around 15%. In these sectors, the majority of employees are represented by sellers in the retail trade and by hotel and restaurant employees, mainly waiters, bartenders and cleaners.

Further, the highest growth has been present in the automation industry sector and in the agriculture sector with over 13% from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2023.

In contrast, the salaries of employees with higher education and professionals increased in the same period by 11%, while salaries in the military sector had a lower increase of about 10.6 percent. Salaries in the armed forces had a higher increase in 2022.

With the increase in the number of tourists in the last two years, the demand for service workers and mainly cleaners and other professions related to the hotel industry has increased significantly. In some cases the needs are being met by importing foreign workers from Asia and Africa.

Albania's economy throughout the transition period was oriented towards a model that does not require skills, such as technology and foreign investments that provide quality work. Due to the limited supply of good jobs, a well-qualified profession finds it difficult to integrate into the labor market.

On the contrary, the high demand for employees with elementary skills has exerted pressure to increase their wages.

The increase in minimum wages from 34,000 ALL in April 2023 to 40,000 ALL also influenced the change in wages for elementary professions.

During the fourth quarter of last year, the group-professions of "Managers, Legislators, Senior Officials of the State Administration and Executive Directors" and "Specialists with higher education (professionals)" offer the highest average gross monthly salaries, compared with the national average salary.

The economic activities that offer an average gross monthly salary, higher than the national average salary, are Financial and Insurance Activities and Information and Communication.

Compared to the same quarter of last year, during the fourth quarter of 2023 the average gross salary for the activity group of Public Administration and Defense; compulsory social insurance; education; health and social work activities, has the largest increase of 16.2%, while the smallest increase is the activity group Financial and Insurance Activities of 4.5%. / Monitor magazine