Number of unemployed falls to 90,020 in Q2, rate remains 11.3%

The number of registered unemployed is decreasing, but the unemployment rate remains the same. According to the State Statistical Office, in the second quarter this year there were 90,020 unemployed, which is a decrease of 1,357 people compared to the same period last year, while the unemployment rate remains at 11.3%.

Economists assess that the reduction in the absolute number of unemployed comes from non-economic and structural reasons: emigration of the young labor force, reduced natural population growth and activities aimed at curbing the grey economy.

Economist Abil Baush warns that the fall in the number of unemployed does not automatically mean economic growth based on productivity. “All of that enters into that component of reducing unemployment. We still have not reached the natural unemployment that other countries have, but that does not mean that we will suddenly have some economic growth. Our policies, our economy are not based on productivity that would be based on creativity, on competitiveness, on finding new markets for our companies that would compete with our workforce through that innovativeness, competitiveness, etc. So, here is the biggest problem: yes, unemployment is decreasing, which is good news, but it is negative that we do not have some productivity that would increase the gross domestic product,” says economist Abil Baush.

Demography and changes in the structure of employment

Statistics show that the working-age population in the most productive group of 25 to 49 years has decreased by 1.2%, while the number of employed people over 65 years of age has risen by 2.7%. These shifts reinforce the argument that the reduction in unemployment has a strong demographic and social aspect.

Baush adds that administrative procedures and measures against the grey economy can reduce the registered number of unemployed without meaning increased activity in the labor market. “Yes, we have a reduction in unemployment, but that is mostly a social component. One reason is that we have drastic migration of that vital workforce because they find more attractive and better jobs. On the other hand, that grey economy we see that somehow, through the new procedures that state institutions are implementing, they try to put that number of unemployment into a reduction in our country. If for some unemployed we only provide health insurance, meaning they are not active job seekers, unemployment is immediately and automatically reduced,” says economist Abil Baush.

Prime Minister Mickoski highlighted the government's balance for created jobs and the potential of the technology sector to attract back emigrated young people. “This Government, in the past two years, starting from the third quarter of 2024 and ending with the second quarter of this 2026, has created 17,000 new jobs. From 691,000 employed to 708,000 employed. If you convert that into numbers you will realize that the previous government did not open so many new jobs in seven years, and with this industry about which I have spoken so far (the data centers) and the ancillary industry that will service this industry, I expect a large part of our people, especially the young who are outside of Macedonia, to return home and precisely here continue their lives with their families. Because from what I can see, and especially in Western Europe the situation there is not what it was 5 or 10 years ago,” said Prime Minister Mickoski.

Unemployment of 11.3% in the country is almost twice as high as the average in the European Union, which stands at 6%. Among EU members, the highest unemployment above 10% is recorded in Finland and Spain, while the lowest rate, between 3% and 3.5%, is observed in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Malta and Poland.

Photo: press material from the event