The unemployment rate in Serbia decreased to 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019 from 14.8 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year. The number of unemployed persons declined by 81.6 thousand, or 17.4 percent, to 387.1 thousand and the number of employed rose by 122.3 thousand, or 4.5 percent, to 2,810.5 thousand. Meantime, the labor force participation rate went up to 53.9 percent from 52.9 percent a year ago and employment rate advanced to 47.4 percent from 45.1 percent in Q1 2018. The youth unemployment rate (people age 15-24) also decreased to 14.7 percent from 17.2 percent in Q1 2018. In the fourth quarter of 2018, the jobless rate was higher at 12.9 percent. Unemployment Rate in Serbia averaged 17.02 percent from 2008 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 25.50 percent in the first quarter of 2012 and a record low of 11.30 percent in the third quarter of 2018.
Unemployment Rate in Serbia is expected to be 11.30 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in Serbia to stand at 11.60 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Serbia Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 9.50 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.