Macedonia simultaneously has a large number of unemployed people and thousands of job vacancies; major issues include the nature of the available positions, often requiring no specialized skills, as well as demographic pressures on the population.
Youth unemployment is also a significant problem. Specifically, in the second quarter, Macedonia had an active population of 798,718, comprising 708,698 employed and 90,020 unemployed individuals—resulting in an unemployment rate of 11.3%. Compared to the same period the previous year, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 1.5% while the number of employed persons rose by 1%; however, the rate among young people is much higher, standing at approximately 30% according to the latest analyses.
The job vacancy rate in 2025 stands at 2.17%, with the highest number of openings found in the service and sales sectors, which currently face a shortage of 2,980 workers. The Skopje region has the highest number of job vacancies, with a rate of 2.30 percent; demand for labor is greatest in the hospitality and food service sectors, where 6.23 percent of positions remain unfilled. Conversely, the electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning sectors have the fewest vacancies, at 0.38 percent, while companies with 10 to 49 employees have an average of 3.20 unfilled positions.
While this does not necessarily indicate that vacancies exist because people are emigrating, it clearly illustrates the gap between the active workforce and available job openings.
Informally employed individuals, specifically workers without regulated employment status, also significantly impact this situation; in the second quarter of 2026, this group totaled 101,022, marking a 7.3 percent increase.
This category is most prevalent in two sectors: agriculture, forestry, and fishing, which accounts for over 51 percent of workers without regulated employment status, and construction, where approximately 17.2 percent of workers operate without an employment contract.