16% of employees in Albania work less than 10 hours per week

16% of Albanian employees work less than 10 hours a week, much more than the region, according to a recently published European Training Fund study.

Data shows that a large portion of workers in the country are underemployed and the income they provide is completely insufficient (see chart below).

The survey notes that most employees in the Balkans have regular work schedules, mostly between 30 and 49 hours per week. However, 8% of employees in North Macedonia and 14% in Albania and Kosovo work more than 50 hours per week.

As the data shows, Albania has two extremes with a quarter of employees working only 2 hours a day, while 14% of employees work more than 50 hours a week, among the highest regional levels.

Employees working in agriculture, construction, and tourism stay on the job longer.

Also, around a third of workers in the Western Balkans are exposed to workplace hazards, such as inadequate conditions and equipment. Bosnia leads the region for the high percentage of workers with inadequate conditions (34%) followed by Serbia (33%), Albania (29%) and North Macedonia (28%).

The survey noted that an increasingly large portion of employees work away from their place of residence and this trend is growing.

Bosnia and Albania have the highest percentage of employees working away from home (36%), Albania 33% and Kosovo the lowest 21%.

Employees with higher education are most likely to benefit from remote work, but this group also includes manual workers in the construction and agricultural sectors.

The ETF survey of around 1,000 employees in Albania showed that the prevalence of informal employment is high in Balkan countries and especially in Albania.

The percentage of workers without a contract ranged from 20% in Albania to 6% in Serbia, while it was only 2% in the EU. This situation is particularly worrying as it leaves a significant part of the workforce in precarious employment.

The labor market in our country has multiple problems related to high informality, low wages, and mismatch of skills with labor market needs./MONITOR