Job quality and working conditions in the Western Balkans
Published: 29 January 2026
This report documents working conditions and job quality in the Western Balkans based on the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey data collected in 2021. It brings new regional insights to the analysis of European working conditions and strives to raise awareness of the topic and broaden the perspectives of policymakers, social partners, researchers and the wider public in the region. While the region still lags behind the European Union in most labour market indicators, and notably in gender equality at work, this report paints a complex and diverse picture of job quality across various dimensions and countries. Region-specific combinations of job demands and job resources found in several dimensions of job quality highlight some common aspects of the region’s work culture, while in other cases differences are pronounced, even between jobs and workers in the culturally closest countries. Nevertheless, many jobs in the Western Balkans demonstrate a remarkably high level of resources, and, with the right policies, many more could become more resourceful.
Job strain is widespread in the Western Balkans. The job quality index, comparing job demands with job resource levels, suggests that around one third of workers are in strained jobs, where demands outweigh available resources.
Job quality is becoming a central labour market issue for workers and employers in the Western Balkans. As the labour market improves and EU rules are adopted, it will be critical for policymakers to pay equal attention to measures that improve working conditions and job quality in the region and convergence with EU-27 labour indicators.
Work–life balance is a particular challenge in the Western Balkans. Long working hours interfere more with family and social commitments than in the EU-27, especially for women, indicating that action is needed to improve working time and work–life balance and reduce gender segregation.
Gender equality at work in the Western Balkans remains a distant ideal. Despite enforceable legislation, meaningful equality in the workplace has yet to materialise across the region.
With advanced technologies likely to become more prevalent, demands on workers will increase in the Western Balkans. Employees will need greater access to job resources such as autonomy and consultation to deploy problem-solving skills and improve work outcomes, while the effects of new technologies will need to be monitored over time.
Social partners are essential to improving job quality, working conditions, work–life balance and gender equality at work in the Western Balkans. Effective social dialogue institutions and employee voice are key, with tripartite bodies encouraged to expand beyond health and safety programmes and include a broader range of working conditions in collective bargaining and collective agreements.
This report analyses the working lives – including working conditions and job quality – of workers in the Western Balkans based on data collected by the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS), a probability survey conducted in 2021 in 36 European countries. The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) has been monitoring working conditions in Europe through its surveys since 1991. The collection and analysis of the data are part of Eurofound’s mission to contribute to the improvement of working conditions. This report marks a first in its focus on job quality in the Western Balkans region, currently comprising five candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) and one potential candidate country (Kosovo (1)), together referred to here as the WB6. The report brings new regional insights to the analysis of European working conditions and strives to raise awareness of this topic and broaden the perspectives of policymakers, social partners, researchers and the wider public in the region.
The improvement of working conditions has been a goal of European integration since the Treaty of Rome (1958). Good working conditions were recognised as a prerequisite for the development of a competitive knowledge-based economy by the Lisbon strategy (2000) and as essential to achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth by the Europe 2020 strategy. The European Pillar of Social Rights (2017) set out 20 principles to guide the EU Member States towards a strong social EU that is fair, inclusive and full of opportunity. These principles are being implemented through a wide range of policy packages alongside plans for a just transition towards a climate-neutral and digitalised society.
The WB6, since embarking on the EU accession path in the late 1990s or 2000s, have been gradually implementing EU policy guidance. In the past decade, they have managed to reduce their labour market gaps with the EU, but the gaps are still substantial. They also need to take further steps in adopting policies for the improvement of working conditions, the promotion of gender equality at work and the creation of inclusive opportunities for their citizens.
The EWCTS delivered a wealth of findings on the aspects of work that affect workers positively (job resources) and negatively (job demands) in the WB6, including the following.
The physical environment is highly strained, with three out of four workers having to engage in repetitive hand and arm movements, and 62 % having to maintain tiring or painful physical positions at work. Both of these rates are well above the EU average. On the other hand, the social environment is more positive than in the EU, with less intimidation and more support from managers and colleagues, which reflects entrenched societal values of solidarity.
Work is not overly intensive, in relative terms, in the WB6 – 4 out of 10 workers always or often work at high speed, and one in three work under tight schedules. This compares favourably with the EU-27, where the corresponding shares in both cases are slightly below one half. With regard to resources, the WB6 are at a disadvantage. Only one third of the workforce reports significant ability to choose or change their method of work, compared with almost one half in the EU. Similarly, while fewer than two in five workers in the WB6 can choose or change the order of their tasks, almost three in five workers can do so in the EU-27.
Working time is very long in the WB6, with both men and women working over 40 hours per week, and 45 % of workers working six or seven days a week. The average working week ranges from 40.5 hours in North Macedonia to over 44 hours in Montenegro. For comparison, in the EU, the average working time is 36.9 hours, with women working significantly fewer hours than men.
Workers in the WB6 have the most difficulty making ends meet among 36 European countries, taking the last six places in the overall ranking for that criterion. While, in the EU-27, 26 % of all workers have trouble making ends meet, this percentage is 46 % in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 54 % in North Macedonia, 57 % in Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, and 69 % in Albania.
An index of job quality, calculated by comparing job demands with job resources, indicates that around one third of workers in the WB6 are in ‘strained’ (i.e. lower-quality) jobs, where job demands outweigh job resources. In the EU, the corresponding share is somewhat lower, with 3 out of 10 workers engaged in strained jobs. This result is expected, as it is driven by the differences in the levels of economic development in the EU-27 and the WB6, which are reflected in the different sectoral and occupational structures in each group. However, the relationship between the gross domestic product level and scores on the job quality index is far from deterministic. It is encouraging that many jobs throughout the WB6, most notably in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, show high levels of job resources despite the limitations associated with their level of economic development.
The EWCTS data confirm well-known facts regarding the gender segregation of sectors and occupations in the WB6. Women are almost five times more likely than men to work in the health sector, four times more in the education sector and almost two times more in commerce and hospitality. Men represent the vast majority of workers in transport (with a share almost four times higher than that of women) and construction (10 times higher than that of women). Within occupational groups, women are two times more prevalent among professional and clerical support workers, while men are three times more prevalent among plant and machine operators and craft workers.
Gender disparities in the distribution of paid and unpaid work are striking. For full-time workers (the vast majority in the WB6), the ratio of paid to unpaid work for men is almost 3 to 1 (52 paid and 18 unpaid hours per week); for women, it is only 1.2 to 1 (46 paid and 38 unpaid hours per week). On average, women work a total of 84 hours per week between paid and unpaid work, while men work 14 hours less. Despite working many more (unpaid and total) hours, working women in the WB6 do not report more difficulties in achieving work–life balance than working men.
Despite much higher total and paid hours of work being reported in the WB6 than in the EU, the shares of workers in the WB6 who report that their working hours fit ‘very well’ or ‘well’ with their family and social commitments (32.1 % and 45.5 %, respectively) are not significantly smaller than those in the EU-27 (34.2 % and 46.9 %, respectively). Among those in the WB6 who report that their working hours fit ‘not very well’ or ‘not at all well’ with their other commitments, the highest shares are in Montenegro (29 %) and Serbia (27.8 %), whereas the lowest share is in Albania (15.1 %).
Any effort to improve working conditions and job quality in the Western Balkans region would need to address three long-standing issues that were also highlighted by the findings of the EWTCS, namely long working hours, long unpaid hours for working women and widespread difficulty making ends meet. These weak spots call for two highly interconnected and synergetic policy directions. The first focuses on the continuation of economic and employment growth to ensure further convergence of the region towards the EU-27. A more developed economy leads to a higher share of modern knowledge-based service jobs and more high-skilled occupations, both associated with better working conditions and job quality. It also leads to better wages and more jobs, helping families to make ends meet. The second, equally important policy direction focuses on promoting workers’ participation and voice in the workplace, gender equality at work and work–life balance to secure equitable, inclusive and robust improvements in working conditions and job quality in the region. There should be no trade-off between the quantity and quality of jobs, and there is no economic or social rationale for it.
At this relatively early stage, the role of social partners in supporting and actively pursuing the implementation of policies promoting job quality, good working conditions, better work–life balance and gender equality at work is essential. Socioeconomic councils should support the inclusion of a broad array of aspects of working conditions on the agenda in collective bargaining and collective agreements at all levels.
The academic community should be invited to engage in contextualising the theory behind the research on working conditions and in explaining and disseminating the results of empirical research. While the European Working Conditions Survey framework is relatively novel in the Western Balkans region, researchers in related fields, such as organisational science, occupational psychology, sociology of work, behavioural science, industrial relations and labour economics, should be involved in the creation of a wider regional expert community by contributing approaches and knowledge from their respective disciplines.
1.This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
This section provides information on the data contained in this publication.
List of tables
Table 1: Data on total population and average age from the last two censuses, WB6
Table 2: Activity rates of the population aged 15 and over, 2014–2023, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 3: Employment rates of the population aged 15 and over, 2014–2023, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 4: Unemployment rates of the population aged 15 and over, 2014–2023, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 5: Mean weekly hours usually worked, 2014–2023, WB6 and EU-27
Table 6: Vulnerable employment rates in the WB6, 2014–2022 (%)
Table 7: Informal employment rates in selected Western Balkan countries, 2014–2023 (%)
Table 8: Average monthly gross wages in the WB6, Austria and Croatia, 2014–2023 (nominal EUR)
Table 9: Dimensions of job quality and corresponding job demands and job resources
Table 10: Physical demand levels in the WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 11: Levels of support from managers and colleagues, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 12: Ability to choose or change methods of work and order of tasks, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 13: Aspects of organisational participation and employee voice, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 14: Working time arrangements in the WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 15: Fear of job loss among employees, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 16: Prevalence of opportunities for training and learning and career advancement, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Table 17: Shares of employees reporting high levels of selected intrinsic resources, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
List of graphs
Figure 1: Net changes in the employment and unemployment rates in the WB6, 2014–2023 (pp)
Figure 2: Average COVID-19 Stringency Index scores from January 2020 to July 2021 in Europe
Figure 3: Physical risk levels by sector, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 4: Rates of exposure to at least one type of intimidation, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 5: Working at high speed and under tight deadlines always or often, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 6: Working at short notice (daily, several times a week, several times a month), WB6 and EU- 27 (%)
Figure 7: Shares of employees who fear undesirable changes in their workplace situation, by sector, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 8: Distribution of job quality across the working population, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 9: Share of employees in strained jobs by gender and age, WB6 (%)
Figure 10: Job quality index distribution by age group, WB6 (%)
Figure 11: Job quality index distribution by contract type, WB6 (%)
Figure 12: Job quality index distribution by sector, WB6 (%)
Figure 13: Job quality index distribution by ISCO-08 one-digit occupational groups, WB6 (%)
Figure 14: Usual number of days in a working week, by employment status, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 15: Usual weekly hours worked by gender, WB6 and EU-27
Figure 16: Usual weekly hours worked by occupational group, WB6 (%)
Figure 17: Usual weekly hours worked by sector, WB6 (%)
Figure 18: Respondents reporting good work–life balance, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 19: Respondents reporting poor work–life balance by occupation, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 20: Respondents reporting poor work–life balance by occupation and country, WB6 (%)
Figure 21: Respondents reporting poor work–life balance by age group and gender, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 22: Respondents reporting poor work–life balance by household type, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 23: Respondents reporting poor work–life balance by age of youngest child, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 24: Worrying often or always about work when not working, by occupation, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 25: Job quality index distribution and reported work–life balance levels, WB6 (%)
Figure 26: Job quality index distribution and reported work–life balance levels, EU-27 (%)
Figure 27: Worrying often or always about work, by job quality and gender, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 28: Often or always tired after work, by job quality and gender, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 29: Often or always having difficulty concentrating, by job quality and gender, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 30: Working time preferences by usual weekly working hours, WB6 (%)
Figure 31: Working time preferences by quality of work–life balance, WB6 (%)
Figure 32: Working time preferences by age group, WB6 (%)
Figure 33: Working time preferences by employment status, WB6 (%)
Figure 34: Working time preferences by occupation, WB6 (%)
Figure 35: Working time preferences by sector, WB6 (%)
Figure 36: Gender employment gap, WB6 and EU-27, 2020–2022 (pp)
Figure 37: Gender segregation in the labour market by economic sector, WB6 (%)
Figure 38: Shares of occupations in total employment by gender, WB6 (%)
Figure 39: Shares of management positions by gender, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 40: Average hours spent on paid and unpaid work by full-/part-time employment and gender
Figure 41: Average hours spent on paid and unpaid work by gender and occupation, WB6
Figure 42: Average hours spent on paid and unpaid work by number of children
Figure 43: Rates of poor work–life balance by household type, WB6 and EU-27 (%)
Figure 44: Rates of feeling often or always tired after work, by gender and job quality (%)
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2026), Job quality and working conditions in the Western Balkans, Working conditions and sustainable work, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
