Study on Dynamics and Constraints of the Employment in the Serbian SMEs During a Crisis

Abstract

Small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs) are often seen as a sector important for job creation. About 2/3 of the overall employment is provided by this sector, both in the EU and in the Republic of Serbia. There is evidence that SMEs are responsible for the most part of the net employment growth. The SMEs sector in Serbia is identified as sector which can absorb a part of the unemployment generated by the large scale enterprises’ (LSEs) restructuring and privatization. Today, the unemployment rate in Serbia is high above the average unemployment rate in the EU. The question is whether the SMEs sector can absorb that unemployment, or is this sector more influenced by the crisis, relative to the LSEs. The aim of this paper is to examine the employment contribution of the SMEs in the Republic of Serbia. Furthermore, the paper will deal with the impact of the crisis on the SMEs’ employment, efficiency and their investment activities. The problems that are identified by SMEs, and that lead to rising unemployment in this sector over the past few years will be considered and analyzed.

Law on professional rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities through the lens of Serbian employers

“…Moreover, a number of respondents mentioned the problem of their inability to adapt their business premises to persons with physical impairments, which makes it difficult to employ them. Finally, small and some of the medium-sized companies underlined complex environment for doing business which currently hinders their growth and workforce development [39]. In addition to fulfilling their legal obligations, the respondents from our survey often support vulnerable social groups in other ways (Figure 4).…”

“…Lower educational attainment limits both current and future employment opportunities, especially in the light of the fact that many of the fastest growing occupations worldwide require the equivalent of an associate's degree or higher [3, p. 16]. Thus, we compared these findings with the data from the national census in 2011, which pointed to a high percentage of persons with disabilities with no access to the education system: two thirds of Although the education reform has commenced by the adaptation of new regulations with the aim of embedding inclusion of persons with disabilities in the mainstream education system [39], the percentage of those who have never attended school is still very high. Moreover, one third of the surveyed participants responded that the low employability of persons with disabilities made it difficult for them to reach candidates through NES, which, according to them, needed to provide integrated accommodation services to employers.…”