Strategic Approach to youth employment policy in Serbia: Trends, perspectives and challenges

Abstract

In comparison with other countries, especially European Union (EU) member states, the labour market indicators for the youth population in Serbia are very unfavourable. The current youth unemployment rate is almost double that of the EU average, whereas the structure of youth employment is unbalanced due to the large share of informal and temporary forms of working contracts. Accordingly, this paper aims to identify the main sources of this problem by focusing on the labour supply and labour demand. The trends in the youth labour market are seen as an outcome of two streams: one is related to the effects of employment policy which intend to improve the quantity and quality of youth employment, whereas the other is connected with strategic workforce planning in organisations (as employers), which is subordinated to accomplishing the organisations’ mission and goals. The analysis also tends to enlighten the determinants of mismatch between knowledge and skills of the youth labour force and the labour market needs. The main findings suggest that the employment policy is paramount for the improvement of youth position in the labour market, but only as an integral part of the process of supporting sustainable and balanced economic growth and reforms of both the education system and labour legislation.