The Republic of North Macedonia, since its independence, has suffered from a high rate of unemployment. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable category are young people. The rate of youth unemployment since the independence of North Macedonia (1991) was consistently over 50% until 2015 when for the first time it dropped below 50%.

According to the data of the State Statistical Office, in the III quarter of 2021, the labor force in the Republic of North Macedonia numbered 945.158 persons, of which  796.681 were employed, while 148.477 were unemployed persons. The activity rate in this period was 56.2, the employment rate was   47.4, while the unemployment rate was 15.7.

With aim to achieve higher employability of young people, the Government in recent year is working on new measures through a combination of employment, education and social assistance policies (more in the next chapters).