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In the focus РУБРИКА
sufficiently clear about why and how percent, with most of the decline in
employers should be made a part of an all countries driven by a reduction in
education reform equation. public employment outside of the pub-
lic administration sector.
FighTing The legAcY oF sTATe
emploYmenT in The The current economic crisis does not
wesTern BAlKAns help strengthen a young private sec-
tor. The Private sector in the countries
Private sector employers in the of the Western Balkans, with over 90
Western Balkans are still ‘new kids percent of all employers represented
on the block’. There is a ‘twist’ in by small and medium enterprises, was
the meaning of the word employer in hit hard by the global crisis, leading to
all transition economies, the West- weaker economic performance of the
ern Balkans included. Until the early surviving firms and lots of business
1990s, most of those countries had one closures. No less important is that the
dominant employer – the state. Accord- crisis has brought back some of the
ing to the World Bank’s ‘Back to Work’ memories about the ‘old times’ and
report from 2014, public employment the concept of stable lifelong employ-
significantly declined in most of those ment with a strong employer. It seems
countries by 2010. However, in 1989, that finding a ‘state job’ is what many
it still accounted for 60-90 percent unemployed people in this region are
of total employment and, over only a interested in – getting an open-end-
couple of decades, it dropped radically ed contract for a full time job with a
– in Albania, for instance, by over 70 steady salary, even if fairly modest.
November 2015 51
