The official number of employees in the public sector is close to the European average rates , as a percentage of the total number of employees, but it is still close to the Macedonian unemployment rates. Simoultaneously, the average unemployment rate in the EU is 6.8% or less than a half compared to the Macedonian.
According to Annual Report from the Registry of employments in the Public Sector for 2018 , during last year, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration has counted 132.068 employees in the public sector. It is 17.4 out of the total number of employees that was announced by the State Statistic Bureau.
According to last data from the European Statistical Agency EUROSTAT, the average in the government sector in 28 states members of the EU during 2017 was 16 % out of the total number of employees.
The share of the government sector int he EU has remained to be very stable between 16 and 17% out of the total employment rates in the period starting from the year 2000, and it remains 16% in 2017″ states the study „European Economy at the Start of the Milenia “.
EUROSTAT remarks that during that period the biggest decrease was n the government sectors in Malta, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and Italy, and the biggest increase was in Romania, Slovenia, and Hungary.
The biggest share in the government sector during 2017 was in Sweden with 29% out of the total employment rates, Finland with 24%, France and Lithuania with 22% and the smallest was in Germany with 10%, Netherlands and Luxemburg with 12, Italy 13 and Portugal 14% out of the total number of employees.
But there is a big difference between the Macedonian and the European counting in the government and public sector.
The government sector includes public servants and other government employees on a national, regional and local level, including the armed forces. It should be stressed that the reach of the government sector varies among different countries – members, because the employments in the education and health sector are part of the government sector in certain countries but not in others” stresses the study of the European Statistical Agency.
In Macedonia the situation is different. While the Registry of Employments in the Public Sector includes the employees in the education, health, and public enterprises, among others, does not include MPs, ministers, deputy ministers, mayors, presidents and members of state committees, directors, judges, public prosecutors and other chosen or appointed persons.
“According to article 2, paragraph (3) of the Law of employees in the public sector, the holders of public functions i.e. the persons that were granted a mandate to perform a function during presidential, parliamentary or local elections, the persons that were granted a mandate to perform duties in the executive or judicial power through elections or appointment from the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia or the organs of local authorities including other persons that according to this law are chosen or appointed on a position by the holders of the legal, executive or judicial authority, do not count as employees in the public sector and their data are not part of this report” states the annual report from the registry.
Despite the different reach and the similar magnitude of the public or the government sector, the difference is in the unemployment rates ie. the number of employees that pay the public or the government sector.
According to the last data from the State Statistical Bureau, the unemployment rates in Macedonia is 17.8%. According to EUROSTAT, the average unemployment rates among the 28 EU countries members was 6,8 % in 2018, or around 38% of the Macedonia unemployment rates.
