Identifying the causes of long-term unemployment among older women in Serbia and North Macedonia

Project duration: October 2024 – March 2026

Call/Program/Scheme: Visegrad + Grants

Client / Financier: International Visegrad Fund

Participating institutions:

Institute of Economic Sciences, Serbia
Institute of Economics-Skopje, North Macedonia
Institute of Economic Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
University of Information Technologies and Management in Rzeszów, Poland

Principal investigator (PI): Kosovka Ognjenović, PhD, Institute of Economic Sciences

The role of IEN in the project: IEN is a lead institution

IEN project team (manager/coordinator, team members):

dr Kosovka Ognjenović (Principal Investigator)
dr Jovan Zubović
dr Valentina Vukmirović
dr Boban Nedeljković

Description:

The project addresses the causes of long-term unemployment among women aged 50 and over in the labour markets of Belgrade and Skopje. The structure of unemployment among women is extremely unfavourable, with more than two fifths of unemployed women in Belgrade and more than one third in Skopje belonging to this age group. This is linked to the fact that employment in agriculture as supporting family members is less prevalent compared to other regions with a larger rural population. The main goal of the project is to provide harmonised, evidence-based research recommendations for improving existing support measures aimed at less employable individuals, among whom long-term unemployed women aged 50 and over represent a significant proportion. The methodological framework of the research was implemented in several steps. A questionnaire was developed and a survey was conducted among unemployed women. Two focus groups were organised with representatives of relevant stakeholders and unemployed women aged 50 and over. Recommendations for public policy makers, social partners, and unemployed women were presented at a round table. Subsequently, experiences and examples of good practice, along with solutions that proved effective in the labour markets of Slovakia and Poland, were shared at the workshop. The project is based on the involvement of several interested parties, which ensured the quality of its implementation and provided a solid foundation for the sustainability of the proposed solutions after the project ended.

Keywords: women 50+, long-term unemployment, specialised support measures, multisectoral approach, regional labour markets

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