More than 28,000 people have left Bosnia over the past year and a half, seeking a better life elsewhere. Experts say the economic situation in Bosnia can be compared to the one in the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

Employers in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated part, Republika Srpska (RS), have two years ago conducted a study that showed that 250,000 people have left the country throughout the past ten years.

The current population of Bosnia is little more than 3,5 million.  

The departures have caused a lack of educated and quality workforce, which has escalated throughout the past seven or eight months. Not one industry branch has remained unaffected by this.

Many leave for Slovenia, Austria or Germany, employers from Bosnia’s other semi-autonomous part, the Federation (FBiH), have said.

“Generally, in the market of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the problem of a lack of qualified staff is more and more prevalent. Some 30 people have left Centrotrans (a private bus company) throughout the past seven or eight months, searching for employment in some foreign country,” the head of the FBiH Association of Employers and director of Centrotrans, Safudin Cengic, told N1.

The most prevalent reasons for Bosnians leaving the country are the future of their children and the unstable political situation.

“For years already, we have an education system that does not serve anyone,” the head of RS Association of Employers, Dragutin Skrebic, told N1. “Above all, we educate people but not according to the needs of the economy (…) but according to the staff in schools,” he explained.

“I am not sure that importing workforce from other areas, which will also be difficult to do, will produce any results. The workforce that would come here is neither educated, nor trained, nor will they be doing the jobs we need,” he said.

The paradox is that Bosnia has a 35 percent unemployment rate, according to economic analyst Faruk Hadzic, who said that the danger lies in the departures of young people from the country.

“The departures of the youth represent a much bigger problem for the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not only regarding employment but also because the number of them leaving keeps increasing constantly. According to some estimates, we will, within the next five or six years, have between 100 and 150 thousand new retirees,” Hadzic said.  

“The question is: if the youth is leaving and the number of retirees is increasing, who will replace those employed and who will secure the pensions for these people?” he asked.  

Should something that could stop the youth leaving the country not happen urgently, “we can expect serious economic problems,” he stressed.