About the ILO in Albania

Strong post-COVID-19 recovery, but labour market challenges persist

Albania has achieved important development results over the past two decades. While the per capita income was only 6 per cent of the average per capita EU income in 2000, it increased to 18 per cent in 2022 (World Bank, 2024). It, however, remains one of the lowest in Europe. Demographic challenges (aging of the population and continuous emigration), a limited structural transformation of the economy (a third of the workforce is employed in agriculture in 2024), and incomplete economic and governance reforms hold the country back.

After a decade of solid GDP growth, the Albanian economy was hit by the earthquake of November 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, resulting in an economic contraction of 3.3 per cent in 2020 (World Bank, 2024). The economy recovered quicker than expected from the pandemic and grew by an estimated 8 per cent in 2021 and has continued to grow at an average of 4.9 per cent in 2022 (World Bank, 2024).

The employment rate is back to pre-pandemic levels, at 67.7 per cent for the age bracket of 15 to 64 years in the 3rd quarter of 2023 (Instat, 2024), but still considerably lower than the EU average of 75 per cent (Eurostat, 2024). The key challenges of the Albanian labour market remain the same as before the pandemic and include elevated youth unemployment, standing at 22 per cent in the 3rd quarter of 2023, high youth inactivity (in 2021, 24 per cent of youth were neither in employment, education, nor training compared to 14 per cent in the EU on average), a significant gender employment gap of 16 per cent, and high informality as 57 per cent of Albanian workers were estimated to be employed in the informal economy in 2019 (Instat, 2024).

ILO interventions in Albania

Based on the new Decent Work Country Programs (DWCP) 2023 to 26, the current focus of ILO support is on 1) Effective protection at work, 2) Inclusive and productive employment, and 3) Improved social dialogue.

Important development cooperation projects of the ILO in Albania include:

• Technical support to the Government of Albania in designing the new Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health at work 2024 -2030.
• Strengthening the State Labour and Social Service Inspectorate in advising companies on compliance with occupational safety and health standards and in tackling informality.
• Technical support to the National Labour Council as the highest national platform of social dialogue on labour and social policies.
• Support to workers’ and employers’ organizations to improve services to members and to represent their interests in policy debates.
• Sustaining competitive and responsible enterprises (SCORE) by improving productivity and working conditions in small and medium enterprises.
• Technical support to implement the ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment, 2019 (No. 190).
• Consolidating the out-of-court labour dispute resolution system.
  
  Text last updated March 2024