Durres Suffers from Unemployment

02 September 2005

Over the past period of several years, the city of Durres has suffered from a great crisis in the employment sector, which has deteriorated further in the last three months. According to the official statistics, there are 21,650 unemployed in Durres, and only in the period June-August of this year, additional 1,700 men and women have lost their jobs due to the closing of several companies.

�In spite of our regular checks and controls, a number of private companies seem committed to downsize their labour force, since the post-election crisis affected greatly their finances, which reflected on the social problems such as the unemployment rates�, says a source with the National Labour Inspectorate.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has implemented only eight projects in 2004 and the first half of 2005, designed to assist the seasonal employment of about 460 persons.

There has been an evident trend with the private employers, but also with some state institutions and public enterprises to lay-off young employees and replace them with already retired workers, who already receive pensions. Also, a number of people of retirement age still work, while hundreds of young teachers, engineers and other professionals wait at the Employment Bureau.

According to sources in the Regional Employment Bureau, over 90 percent of the active labour force, most of them people that migrated to Durres from other parts of Albania, remain unemployed, or work on the black market. On the other hand, the employers say that the unfair competition, high taxes and bribes forces them to downsize or fully close their operations, especially during the last couple of months.