At the end of February of 2009 the National service for employment registered 749,691 jobless people what is by about 13,000 more than in the previous month.

In recent four months only, the number of jobless people increased by 31,000.

Experts warn that the number of the jobless in our country is larger than statistical data indicate. Officials on the other side claim that the situation is not drastic and that the crisis peak when unemployment is concerned is expected in the middle of the year.

As a new legal category there is introduction of efficiency decree by which the minister in charge of employment issues sets a norm that the National service for employment has to fulfill in implementation of program and measures from the action plan.

It is yet to be seen how much this innovation shall help in cutting the number of the jobless.

The real number of jobless people is 400,000 and the unemployment rate is 14 percent. These are date from the Labor poll that is being carried out as per the EU standards’, Velimir Ilic, director of the National service for employment says.

Some economists, however, claim that statistical data actually do not give a real insight into the matter.
‘It is very problematic to analyze statistical data on unemployment here.

The competent officials claim that that the unemployment rate is 15 per cent. However, a large number of people are removed from the list after certain period of time if they are not active in search of a job’, Miroslav Zdravkovic, economist explains.