Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Table 9.5. Population aged 15+ by activity status and gender
Total Active Inactive
Total Women Total Women
Employed unemployed
Total Women Total Women
Total Women
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
15-24 15.5 14.9 8.8 8.1 6.3 5.5 24.8 22.3 23.5 20.7
25-34 15.4 14.4 23.3 23.4 22.2 22.1 30.7 30.5 6.0 6.8
35-44 14.7 14.5 23.6 25.1 24.1 25.5 20.2 22.8 4.4 5.6
45-54 18.5 18.3 26.9 28.2 28.2 29.8 18.1 19.6 8.8 10.0
55- 64 15.6 15.6 12.2 10.3 13.1 11.3 6.2 4.7 19.5 20.1
65+ 20.2 22.2 5.2 4.9 6.0 5.9 0.0 0.0 37.8 36.8
Working age 15-64 100.0 51.0 100.0 44.5 100.0 43.1 100.0 53.0 100.0 62.6
9.2. Characteristics of the employed
Both LSMS and LFS define the term
''employed” in accordance with EUROSTAT
recommendations, using the ILO definition.
According to the definition, an employed person is
any person who, for at least one hour during the
reference week, did any work for pay (in cash or in
kind), and a person who had a job but was absent
from work in the reference week.
Apart from people who began working in a
company, institution or some other type of
organization or became entrepreneurs, employed
persons also include individual farmers, unpaid
household members assisting in household tasks
and people who did a job which they found and
contracted on their own (orally or in writing)
without entering into an employment contract.
Therefore, the formal status of the work is not the
basis for the definition but it is determined on the
basis of the actual activity performed in the
reference week.
Labour market indicators show that women are
in a far more difficult position than men. Women
account for 43 percent of the total number of
employed persons, which corresponds to the very
low employment rate. The employment rate for
women (46.8 percent) is almost 30 percent lower
than the employment rate for men and falls far short
of the Lisbon objective of 67 percent for female
workers. Unlike developed countries in which
women, because of family responsibilities, use the
opportunity to work part time, in Serbia this type of
work is not widespread. According to LFS 2007
data only 8 percent of the total number of employed
persons works part time, less than 50 percent of
who are women.
According to LSMS 2007 the age structure of
employed persons shows that among the employed,
most people are aged between 45 and 54 (28
percent). While the proportion of young people
(aged 15-24) of the total employed people is almost
the same (6 percent) as that of people who are
beyond working age i.e. above 64 years.
According to the LSMS data, in 2007, the
employment rate of 55.35F5F6 percent (for people of
working age) is still much below the full
employment rate of 70 percent as envisaged by the
National Employment Strategy and some 10 percent
lower than the EU average (respective employment
rates in neighbouring countries in 2007 are 55.6
percent in Croatia, 57.3 percent in Hungary, 58.6
percent in Bulgaria and 58.8 percent in Romania).
The youth employment rate is very low at 19.2
percent, and particularly low among female workers
(only 14.2 percent). The highest employment rate of
almost 77 percent is found in those of full working
age i.e. those aged between 35 and 44. Table 6
shows data on employment and unemployment rates
by age and gender.
Employment status
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