Although unemployment has significantly decreased over the past years and reached 15.9% in the third quarter of 2021, the unemployment rate of the Roma remained unchanged. According to social mapping data from 2018, the Roma employment rate is 23%, almost twice as low as the national average, while the Roma unemployment rate is a record high of 67%. Among Roma women, on the other hand, the employment rate is only 8%.
In order to reduce unemployment, the Employment Operational Plan foresees measures for employers to encourage Roma to employ other Roma or to develop their own businesses, as well as measures to increase the skills of the unemployed. With the aim to review if and to what extent the situation on the ground has changed in comparison to 2020, we monitored the use of active employment measures and services by Roma women.
The monitoring report in 2021 clearly indicates that the economic, health and energy crisis deepened the inequality for the most vulnerable categories of citizens. Although the number of Roma women with higher education, in the period from 2019 to 2021, grew by 50% at the national level (i.e. from 10 to 15 Roma women), it is still worrying that unemployment data among young Roma women between the ages of 20-24 shows increase, by as much as 137%. There is also rise with Roma women over the age of 60, which is also worrying, as the percentage increased by 172% compared to 2019.
An extremely small percentage of Roma women (only 2%) used any of the measures for employment out of the total number of people who used any measure. Although there is an increase in the use of measures by Roma women by 31% compared to 2019 (163 Roma women), however, 165% more Roma (589) were part of the active measures. Despite the fact that the number of Roma women who were part of the active measures within the years shows a minimal increase, however, when the increased unemployment rate and the increased number of registered unemployed Roma women are taken into account, this number is again small and does not contribute to reducing their unemployment.
The complete monitoring report, which includes recommendations to the competent institutions, is available in Macedonian language here.
The document is the result of the monitoring activities of the Informal Group for Advocacy of Roma Women’s Rights within the project “Employed Roma Woman = Independent Roma Woman”, supported by the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, conducted during 2022. This Informal Group, established in 2019 with the technical support of HERA, advocates for equal employment opportunities for Roma women in our country.
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