Kosovo delegation visits Ireland to study good practices in the area of labour market data

The objective of the study visit was to familiarise a delegation from the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transfers of Kosovo* with Irish arrangements for collecting and analysing labour market data and with examples of how such data and analysis are integrated into the formulation of policy.

The main Irish institutions that hosted the delegation, and presented services and good practices, were:

• the Department of Social Protection (Labour Market Policy Division & Public Employment Service Unit);
• the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment;
• the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit (SLMRU) within SOLAS; and
• the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The delegation was also received by the European Foundation for Working and Living Conditions (Eurofound), an EU agency based in the outskirts of Dublin city, to introduce the delegation to the work of the foundation and explore possible areas of future cooperation.

The study visit is part of the technical cooperation that the EU Facility SOCIEUX+ is implementing with the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transfers, aiming at enhancing capacities of the Ministry’s department of labour and employment to use labour market data for evidence-based policy making.

The mission builds on previous activities implemented in the framework of such cooperation, which resulted in the mapping of labour market data demand in Kosovo, in building a data governance framework and in the actual set-up of the team responsible for collecting and analyzing key data on labour market demand.

The delegation consisted of the officials who are establishing the analysis team in the Ministry, together with the Minister’s advisor on labour market issues, and was accompanied by an Irish expert mobilized by SOCIEUX+ Terry Corcoran, former official of the Department of Social Protection, and a SOCIEUX+ representative.

Some of the areas studied included, for example, understanding the policy planning processes of the Pathways to Work strategy; minimum wage setting; work permit policy; vacancy data analysis and occupational forecasting; an overview of the strategic and operational management of the Public Employment Services; and specific technical advice on the use of online vacancy records, tax-administration employment records, and Labour Fource Survey (LFS) micro-data, amongst other key topics studied.

As a result of the study visit, the analysis team in the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transfers will have the necessary elements to work on a comprehensive report on the pattern of job openings in the Kosovo economy in 2023.