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The government stopped hiring in the state for elections, but added 3,900 people by the end of 2024

Politiko 2025-03-20 11:29:24

The government stopped hiring in the state for elections, but added 3,900 people

Earlier this month, on March 3, the government decided, in accordance with the Electoral Code, to suspend all recruitment procedures in the public sector for the election campaign period, i.e. from April 11 to May 11, in order to guarantee a regular and fair electoral process.

But official data from INSTAT reporting the number of employees in public administration show that in the last quarter of last year, around 3,900 people were added to the public administration according to payroll data from taxes.

Official INSTAT data report that the number of employees in the public sector reached 184,278 people in the last quarter of 2024. Compared to the previous quarter, about 3,900 employees or 2.1% more were added. Compared to the same period in 2023, there were about 2,800 more employees.

The earliest data show that there is a positive relationship between elections and public sector employment.

For example, in the second quarter of 2021, employment in the state marked a record for the period 2018-2024, with over 185 thousand people employed, while parliamentary elections were held in April 2021. In 2021, when the general parliamentary elections were held, employment in the state sector expanded by about 8 thousand people or by 4% within a year.

To prohibit the use of state employment for political favors, the Electoral Code stipulates that any recruitment procedure by institutions that recruit their employees through the Labor Code shall be prohibited.

The government announced at the beginning of March that the initiated procedures will have to be completed, but no new employment procedures in ministries, subordinate institutions, or even in joint-stock companies with state capital can be carried out after March 3.

But official data shows that nearly 4,000 people were added to the public sector in the last quarter of 2024, but recruitment may have continued in January-February, before being suspended a month before the elections.

Previous data shows that most often during election campaigns, more employees are recruited from state-owned enterprises, especially water supply companies and local governments.

Even though the government has reduced the number of ministries and is offering a series of services online, the number of public employees has again increased instead of decreasing.

Albania joins the former communist countries that inherited an economy where the state was the sole provider of employment until 1990. After this year, the weight of the state sector in the economy and employment would decline from year to year due to the adoption of the market economy model, but the state has begun to strongly increase its presence in the economy in the last decade./ Monitor