Labor Market

General overview 

An educated and qualified workforce is available to foreign investors in Macedonia. The average monthly gross salary in Macedonia is €491.
Macedonia has high unemployment rate ~32%. With 45% of population under 30 Macedonia is the youngest country in Eastern Europe.85% of high school graduates are enrolled in Universities.
There are 5 Public and numerous private internationally recognized universities and colleges. Universities are open for cooperation with the companies and implementation of their training programs in the education process.
Also the Government is willing to help investors in the process of labour force training by participating in such programs. Educational standards at technical educational institutions in Macedonia resemble those of the Western countries.
Engineering grads are widely recognized at top Educational programs and Technology companies worldwide.
Macedonia maintains strong lead in the region in terms of language skills.
English is widely spoken, as well as all regional languages (Serbian, Croatian, Albanian, Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek).In order to support companies and increase their international competitiveness, the Government has initiated legal reforms in the functioning of the labour market that enable easier hiring and firing of the workforce.

Salaries

The average monthly gross salary in 2010 is €491. The minimum salary for each professional branch is defined by Collective agreements.
This amount includes the net salary, personal income tax and social contributions for pension and disability insurance, health insurance and employment insurance. Personal income tax in the TIDZs is 0%, so the salaries inside the Zones are additionally reduced.

Social Contributions

By January 2012 the pension insurance contribution will drop to 15%, the health insurance contribution will drop to 6%, and the unemployment insurance contribution will drop to 1%.