The drop of unemployment rate is a reality and the biggest success of the government in the past nine years, Deputy PM and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said. According to the data released on Friday by the State Statistical Office, the number of employees is 711.000, which compared to 2006 when 560.000 people were employed, means increase of employment i.e. 150.000 newly opened jobs.

This is the result of good economic policies, primarily maintaining excellent environment for doing business where Macedonia is ranked 12th in the world, low taxes, support to domestic companies through cheap credit lines and through projects supported by the budget and foreign investment. So, it is a combination of measures and policies in all segments of the economy, including the active policies implemented by the Employment Agency, Stavreski said.

He added that out of these newly opened 150.000 jobs, over 16.500 jobs are created in the industry, more than 35.000 jobs are created in trade and 24.000 jobs are opened in transport and communication and in all other sectors. The economic growth in all sectors creates jobs, he said.

He noted that jobs are created both in the domestic and foreign companies. Foreign companies opened 16.000 jobs in recent years, while domestic companies mainly with Employing Macedonia project opened 10.400 jobs as well as with other projects of the Employment Agency where 24.000 jobs were created. Moreover, around 7.000 new jobs were opened with the loans of the European Bank that we have provided for small and medium sized enterprises.

It is a serious step forward in the fight against the biggest problem in Macedonia - the unemployment, because by job creation, also better prospects are created. Therefore we will remain committed to further reducing unemployment rate implementing all these measures and policies and new projects in order reduce it below 22 percent, which is our goal for 2018, Stavreski said.