Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

than in 2003). Apart from the fact that the
agricultural sector contains the largest number of
employees, it is also the sector with the largest
number of poor people. As much as 47 percent of
employees living below the poverty line work in
agriculture.
Compared to 2002, the processing industry,
construction, trade and the real estate sale and
renting business account for a larger share in the
total number of employed. The structure of
employees by activity is shown in the graph below:
Graph 9.5. Employees by activity sector,
LSMS 2007 (percent)
43.6%
5.3%
23.6%
27.5%
agriculture
industry
services
other
9.9. Additional job
There are different reasons why people in
different situations decide to find an additional job.
Although we can expect that the majority of those
employed get an additional job in order to improve
their living standard, there are almost 54 percent of
Serbians who do an additional job in order to
provide a basic living for themselves and their
families. However, the percentage of people who
have an additional job has decreased by 3 percent
since 2003 and levelled off at just 8.8 percent of the
total number of employees. Men do additional jobs
more often than women and most often in the
agricultural sector (57 percent of the cases).
Examined by region, employees in Vojvodina are
most likely to have a second job (12 percent of
those employed).
Since second jobs provide additional income
that can improve the living standard in a large
number of developed countries, it might be seen as a
chance to further reduce poverty in Serbia where
only 4 percent of the poor have an additional,
second job.
9.8. Employees and length of service
The insufficient employment of young people
and changes in the law on pension insurance (2003),
led to the fact that the average number of the
employees’ years of service in 2007 was slightly
over 20 years, which is almost 4 years more than in
2003. Those with less than a year of working
experience constituted 13.1 percent of the total
number of those employed in 2003, while their
share in the total number of employees in 2007 was
only 3.6 percent. On the other hand, the number of
employees with more than 30 years of working
experience has increased from 13.6 percent to over
21 percent.
The least educated workers on average have
the highest number of years of service (29 years),
meaning that they are mostly older workers, while
the average number of years of service of
employees with high school, college and university
education is 17 or 18 years. It can therefore be
concluded that young people who have only
primary school education find it more difficult to
get a job.
Employment status
9.10. Unemployment, definitions and
data issues
When analyzing unemployment it is important
to establish a clear and precise definition of an
unemployed person. According to the ILO
definition, the unemployed are those who in the
previous week have not performed any paid work,
or had a job from which they were absent and to
which they could go back to after the expiry of their
leave, on condition that they meet the following
requirements:
- that in the last four weeks they have taken active
steps to find a job, and that, in case they have
been offered a job, they are able to start work
within a period of two weeks, or
- that in the last four weeks they have not been
actively looking for a job, because they have
found a job that they should start in three
months’ time at the latest and that they are able
to start work within two weeks.
This definition has been used in the LFS since
2004 when the methodology was harmonized to
EUROSTAT guidelines. By using this LFS
methodology (also applied in LSMS 2007)
unemployment is defined more precisely and it is
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