Employment in Albania
Employees and employers
In 2021, there are 1.25 million people employed in Albania, 0.56 million women and 0.69 million men. Those are people aged 15 years and older who work for pay or profit according to the results of Labour Force Survey conducted by INSTAT. The number of employed people is crucial to evaluate the ability of the economy to create jobs for the people.
Among the employed people, 15-64 years old, that is usually considered as the ‘working age’ we distinguish different categories:
- About 0.6 million are paid employees – people who work for a public or private employer and who in return receive pay for their work. They account for 51% of the total employees in the country;
- Almost 0.4 million are self-employed – people who are the owner of the enterprise (with or without workers) that make 31% of the total employment;
- Just about 0.2 million are family workers – people who work without payment within the family unit to help running an agricultural holding or other business. They correspond to 18% of the working people.
Men are most likely to work as self-employed
There are more women that work as employees compared to men and definitely more women that work as family contributors without a personal earning or profit. According to the data, women are 1.9 times more likely than men to help in the farm or family business. On the contrary, the self-employment is more common among men with a share of about 38% of their total employment, or 1.7 times higher than women.
Fig 1. Share of employees, self-employed and family workers in total employment by gender, 2021
Source: INSTAT, Labour Force Survey
Most people are employed in the service sector
The employed people, aged 15 years and over, that work in services account for 44% while agriculture still remain an important sector employing more than 34% from the total workers in Albania. On the contrary, people working in the sectors of construction and industry make up for only 22%.
Data on employment helps us understand the relative importance of different economic activities. It is useful in identifying broad shifts in employment and stages of economic development of the country. Overall, in today’s world, jobs are relocated from agriculture and other labor-intensive primary activities to industry and finally to the service sector.
Fig. 2 Share of employed people by economic activity, 2012-2021, in %
Source: INSTAT, Labour Force Survey
But half of workers are agricultural and trade workers
The agriculture and trade workers are the main occupations currently in Albania. They account for about half of the workers reflecting the employment structure by economic activities. The distribution of employed people among the occupational categories specified by gender is presented below:
Fig.3 Share of the employees (15+) by occupational category and gender, 2021
Source: INSTAT, Labour Force Survey
The tendency for men and women to work in different occupations is important for shedding light on the extent to which employed persons benefit from different opportunities and treatment in their work life.
More than half the population in employment
For 2021, an employment rate of 60.9% has been registered in Albania (68.2% for men and 53.8% for women). The indicator can be used in conjunction with the unemployment rate for a general evaluation of the situation on the labour market.
Fig.4 Employment rate for the population 15-64 years old by gender, 2012-2021
Source: INSTAT, Labour Force Survey
The employment rate, calculated by dividing the number of employed persons by the population of the same age group, is important to make the indicator comparable in time and space, removing the impact of population development.
