3.11 Current debates and reforms
Current situation
Since its independence until today, North Macedonia has had a constantly high youth unemployment rate, and for some years (2003, 2004) it reached up to 65%. In 2019 we managed to decrease the rate to 35.55 (according to the Global Economy) which is lowest ever.
Current reforms
In December 2019, the government adopted the Revised Program for Reforms in Employment and Social Policy 2022 (Ревидирана програма за реформи во вработувањето и социјална политика 2022). The program addresses success with the Youth Guarantee, and envisages an increase in the number of young people involved in the Youth Guarantee, at 14,000 per year.
The program does not envisage any specific reforms in terms of increasing youth employability, but only confirms the government's commitment to continue with measures and policies that lead to reducing youth unemployment (mostly Youth Guarantee).
The goal is to increase the youth employment rate to 34.5% by 2022 (for comparison, in 2018 it was 30.9%)