Informal and part-time work

Workers in the informal economy are not protected by labour legislation, neither are they subject to social protection benefits. Data on informality in the labour markets of the Western Balkan economies are scarce, and gender-disaggregated indicators are often missing.

Women are more likely to work part-time than men in all WB economies, except for Montenegro that shows no gender gap. On average, part-time employment accounted for 20.3% of women’s employment, and 16.1% of men’s in the Western Balkans. The share of women in part-time employment was lower than the EU-27 average of 29.7% in 2020. In contrast, men’s share in part-time in the Western Balkans was higher than the EU-27 average of 8.4% in 2020.

  2018Q1 2018Q2 2018Q3 2018Q4 2019Q1 2019Q2 2019Q3 2019Q4 2020Q1 2020Q2 2020Q3 2020Q4 2021Q1 2021Q2
Albania 39,65 37,26 36,09 37,01 38,27 38,33 38,41 38,53 37,44 35,76 36,33 36,91 35,45 35,71
Bosnia and Herzegovina                 15,9 16,9 18,2 16,1 13 14,6
North Macedonia 10,6 14,7 14,4 10,6 12,4 12,4 11,6 7,7 7,5 9,7 8,3 8,8 7,3 9,9
Serbia 19,7 21,7 21,6 19,6 18,2 19,5 19,1 19,2 17,1 17,2 19,4 17,8 12,2 14,7
WB average 23,3 24,6 24,0 22,4 23,0 23,4 23,0 21,8 19,5 19,9 20,6 19,9 17,0 18,7

Open data set

Source:
ILOSTAT, 2022 for Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia; INSTAT for Albania

  2018 2019 2020
Women
EU-27 32,0 32,0 29,7
Albania 22,80 21,60 23,20
Bosnia and Herzegovina 14,94 14,05 15,26
North Macedonia 14,87 17,52 27,77
Montenegro 7,31 6,83 8,51
Serbia 23,21 23,24 25,24
Kosovo* 9,86 19,26 24,93
WB average 15,50 17,08 20,82
Men
EU-27 9,1 9,2 8,4
Albania 14,80 13,50 14,40
Bosnia and Herzegovina 10,81 9,99 9,30
North Macedonia 11,58 12,60 22,35
Montenegro 7,46 7,32 8,75
Serbia 17,83 17,71 18,38
Kosovo* 8,07 12,45 21,80
WB average 11,76 12,26 15,83

Open data set

Source:
INSTAT for Albania, and ILOSTAT (2022).