Labour Market Research in 2024/2025

The Labour and Employment Agency of BiH, in cooperation with Entity employment services and the BD BiH Employment Service, has published the fifth consecutive labour market research for the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The survey was conducted in the last quarter of 2024 on a sample of 2 600 companies collectively employing 14.7% of the entire workforce in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The survey pertains to the results achieved in 2024 and projections for 2025.

In 2024, 55.7% of employers reported an increase in the scope of their business activities accompanied by financial growth, whereas only 9.9% of them experienced a decline in the scope of business and profits.  These indicators reflect the trend of economic growth and an increase in the number of persons in employment. Forecasts for 2025 in this segment are optimistic as 72.7% of businesses anticipate a growth in their operational volume and financial gains in contrast to 3.8% that forecast a decline.  

As regards the recruitment of new workforce in 2024, 45.7% of employers reported to have encountered challenges in finding new employees.  The most pronounced challenges were associated with positions such as salesclerk, waiter, truck driver, worker tasked with simple duties, auxiliary worker in manufacturing, needleworker, cook, carpenter, locksmith, storekeeper, joiner, welder, rebar worker, bricklayer, shoemaker, tailor, furniture installer, galvaniser, upholsterer and bus driver.  Of those positions, 70.3% pertains to skilled and highly skilled workers, 14.7% to those with secondary school qualifications, 5.8% to skilled workers and 3.7% to semi-skilled and lower skilled workers.  This clearly indicates that the most pressing issue is the recruitment of workforce with lower qualification levels.

Among all entrepreneurs facing challenges in finding workforce, the largest percentage, 49.7% of them, claimed that the reason was the shortage of workforce with required occupations.  The next cited reason was a lack of interest in occupying specific positions (47.3%), a lack of professional knowledge and skills among candidates (35.7%), insufficient work experience (34.6%), general economic conditions (17.5%), dissatisfaction with the offered salary (10.6%), etc.

The entrepreneurs who were unable to find suitable candidates due to the lack of availability of applicants possessing the required occupations and skills identified the following areas as most deficient among candidates: learning ability (52.6%), interpersonal and social competencies (19.4%), entrepreneurship and sense of initiative (16.6%), digital literacy (14%), foreign language communication skills (11.9%), etc.

Recruitment projections for 2025 reveal that 54.8% of employers plan to hire new workforce, which is on par with previous years. Among these, the greatest need for new recruitments was reported in the construction sector at 61.6%, followed by the manufacturing sector at 59.6%, the service sector at 56% and the retail trade at 48.2%.  

As regards the anticipated demand for 2025, the ten most demanded occupations include: retailer and merchant at 8.6%, waiter at 5.4%, truck driver at 5.2%, auxiliary worker in manufacturing at 4.3%, worker tasked with simple duties at 3.9%, cook at 3.0%, needleworker at 2.8%, bricklayer at 2.6%, carpenter at 2.3% and storekeeper at 2.0%.  When observed by qualification level, 66.4% of anticipated demand was for skilled and highly skilled workers, 17.3% for those with secondary school qualifications, 7.3% for university graduates, 5.4% for unskilled workers and 2.7% for semi-skilled and lower skilled workers. 

Of the total number of surveyed employers, 17% reported the necessity of organising additional training for their staff, primarily job specific (82.2%) and IT training sessions (13.1%).    As regards specific occupations requiring specialized training, more than thirty distinct occupations were listed which illustrates employers’ dissatisfaction with the level of knowledge and skills demonstrated by their staff.

For 2025, 59.1% of employers have planned to increase salaries, while 20.9% responded to have no such plans.  Simultaneously, 3.1% of employers expect to have redundancies in 2025 which is on par with the previous years.

Despite the evident demand for workforce expressed throughout the entire labour market research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stereotypes and discrimination continue to play a significant role.  This phenomenon is particularly pronounced among hard-to-employ groups in the labour market.  Consequently, a mere 3% of employers have expressed their willingness to hire migrants, while 83.5% were not willing to do so.  Similarly, only 8.7% were willing to hire Roma people, while 77.8% discarded this option.  These two labour market groups are most vulnerable according to these indicators. Adverse attitude also exists towards wards of homes for neglected and abandoned children (a mere 11.4% of employers were willing to hire them), victims of violence (11.8%) and disabled people (12.1%).  War veterans, women from rural areas, people aged 50+ and unskilled workers are in a slightly better position with the proportion of employers willing to hire them ranging between 22% and 28.6%.  The most advantaged among the vulnerable labour market groups are youth with no prior work experience, with 65.9% of employers who are willing to hire them.