Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

part will show net regional differences in
consumption, excluding the effect of education,
status on the labour market of the household head
and demographic features of the household.
Large regional discrepancies in Serbia indicate
low labour mobility and a poor investment climate in
many parts of the country. A poorly developed
regional real estate market and inefficient
communications systems, which hinder commuting
between certain regions (with a lot of time spent),
may result in poor labour mobility. The unemployed
and the employed are often reluctant to move to
regions with better employment perspective, due to
the problems related to finding an appropriate
accommodation, but also due to reallocation costs,
risks of losing the social network and the real
uncertainty of finding a job (World Bank, 2003).
1.8. Labour market status
Poverty is most widely spread in households
with an unemployed head of household (Table 9).
Their poverty index in 2007 was several times
higher than the population average (19.7 percent
versus 6.6 percent respectively). However, the
population living in such households made up only
3.9 percent of the total population, i.e. 11.7 percent
of the total number of the poor. Contrary to that,
households with an employed household head had
the lowest poverty risk, which is not surprising
taking into account high salary growth in the 2002-
2007 period. The population living in households
with an inactive household head had the poverty
index much above the average (8.1 percent versus
6.6 percent respectively) and accounted for almost a
half of the poor.
Given that the living standard of the population
does not only depend on the labour market status of
the household head, but also on the employment level
of all household members, it is necessary to consider
the profile of employment of the entire household.
Thus households were classified into three groups
subject to the age and labour market status of all
household members: households with no employed
members (a household where none of the members of
working age is employed), inactive households
(members belong to one of the following categories:
children under 15; persons aged 15-24 in the process
of education or inactive; persons over 65 who are not
working) and households with an employed member
(a household with at least one employed member).
Table 10 shows that inactive households have
the largest poverty index (12.2 percent), followed
by the households with no employed member (11.1
percent). However, the largest proportion of the
poor in Serbia lives in the households where at least
one member is employed (67.6 percent), given that
these households are the most numerous (81.4 percent).
A detailed analysis of poverty and labour
market status will be presented in Chapter 9.
Table 1.9. Poverty indicators according to the labour market status of the household head, 2007
Percentage of the poor
Structure of the poor,
percent
Structure of the overall
population, percent
Active 5.6 51.6 60.5
Employed 4.7 39.9 56.6
Unemployed 19.7 11.7 3.9
Inactive 8.1 48.4 39.5
Total 6.6 100.0 100.0
Table 1.10. Poverty indicators according to the labour market status of household members, 2007
Percentage of the poor
Structure of the poor,
percent
Structure of the overall
population, percent
Households with employed members 5.5 67.6 81.4
Households with no employed member 11.1 20.2 12.0
Inactive households 12.2 12.2 6.6
Total 6.6 100.0 100.0
Poverty profile in Serbia
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