It is possible to find a news article with lists of unemployed persons sorted by professions. But I don’t remember I ever found similar list of workers required by enterprises, sorted by professions.

I got a chance to make such list for region of Banja Luka on Job Fair in June 2017. I’m aware that not all enterprises which are looking for workers were present on this Job Fair, but I believe that based on those that were present a rough image can be formed on what professions are needed by domestic enterprises.

Enterprises from Banja Luka and neighboring municipalities (Čelinac, Gradiška, Kotor Varoš and Prnjavor) were present and they were in search for almost 800 workers.

It is evident that nearly half of workers are required by textile and shoe wear industry, and that they need workers in production. Requirements for employment in these enterprises are low. Candidates are only required to have elementary school diploma, which means non-qualified workers can apply. Low level of needed skills and knowledge for work in these positions conditioned very low salaries (minimal salary, ~200 EUR). This shouldn’t surprise anyone, since textile and shoe wear industry products are made in the same way in Germany, Turkey, India and here, which means enterprises in this industry need to offer lower price to be competitive. That’s why they need to make savings in production, and the most effective way to make those savings are low salaries for workers. To conclude, enterprises in this industry offer plenty of jobs, but those jobs are, conditionally speaking, not quality ones.

For easier analysis, in further text I will ignore this industry and analyze rest of required workers.

When we ignore workers required by textile and footwear industry, most of required workers are non-qualified workers with only elementary school finished. They are mostly required by construction companies: construction carpenter, armature workers, masons, electrical installers. Then there are Mechanical engineers (first profession with Faculty education) – 19 of them. Out of mechanical professions, mechanical technicians, welders and locksmiths are also needed. Leather technicians, carpenters, sellers, whitesmiths, tip truck drivers are also needed, about 10 for each profession.

I was surprised to see small number of required CNC operators (7), since I often hear in enterprises they’re always in pursuit for them.

It’s interesting to highlight number of needed engineers, total 28. 19 mechanical engineers, 8 electrical engineers and one geoinformatics engineer. Number of needed architects is 5 and number of economists with Bachelor is only 1. In total, number of professions with Faculty diploma is 34.

Then I grouped professions required by domestic enterprises based on level of knowledge and skills they need to have. This is how I did it:

5 – engineer / Faculty diploma
4 – Technician / Highschool diploma
3 – craftsman
2 – trained worker
1 – non-qualified worker

This is the result:

Hence, enterprises in Banja Luka Region are mostly looking for trained workers (whereby terms for employment are usually minimal, so we can also call them non-qualified workers), 478 of them. With 37 non-qualified workers, we get information that 65% of required workers are those with minimal knowledge and skills. With raise of needed knowledge and skills, demand for these professions is decreasing. Thus, number of needed craftsmen is 199, number of needed technicians is 51 and number of needed professions with faculty education is 37.

Now let’s get back to the beginning and remind ourselves that now all enterprises in Banja Luka and Region were present at Job Fair Banja Luka 2017, so these data should be taken with reserve. But I think that at least they are useful to make these conclusions: Required professions in Banja Luka are mostly those with low level of knowledge and skills. That shows us that economy of Banja Luka Region is not complex enough and that products it makes are relatively simple, because demand for knowledge and skills is low.

From the perspective of enterprises, it means they can’t be competitive with quality, but with low price. From workers’ perspective it means that their knowledge and skills are not needed and that what lefts, and that is their physical work on relatively simple jobs, will be low paid.

PS

Banja Luka Region has 35 000 people on Employment Office’s list of unemployed persons. Yet, during my visit to Job Fair, only about 10 unemployed persons were inside the hall. More employers then unemployed persons. But that’s topic for another blog.