Youth unemployment rate in the Western Balkans

The ‘Western Balkans Labour Market Trends Report 2017’, produced by the World Bank and the WIIW research institute, highlights that youth, women and the low-educated are among the worst affected labour market participants and have high inactivity rates. According to the World Bank’s SEE Regular Economic Report No 10, nearly 25 % of the region’s young people are inactive, meaning they are not in employment, education, or training. High youth unemployment varies across the region: Albania and Montenegro have the lowest rates and BiH and Kosovo the highest. Although some EU Member States, such as Greece and Spain, have similar high levels of youth unemployment, the EU-28 average of 18.7 % is much lower than in the Western Balkans. As in many EU Member States, high youth unemployment in the WB reflects the difficulties labour markets are going through.