In the second quarter of 2026, Macedonia had an active population of 798,718: 708,698 employed and 90,020 unemployed. The unemployment rate stands at 11.3 percent. At the same time, according to the State Statistical Office, the job vacancy rate was 2.17 percent. There is work. There aren't always workers.

The biggest shortage is in service and sales jobs, meaning shop assistants, waiters, cooks and service staff, where 2,980 unfilled positions were recorded. The highest vacancy rate is in accommodation and food service, a full 6.23 percent, and the lowest in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, at 0.38 percent. Among companies with 10 to 49 employees, the rate reaches 3.20 percent.

In June, the Employment Agency's records listed 88,541 active job seekers, while its current listings offer more than 12,000 open positions.

Where the people go missing

There's no single answer. Some of the unemployed have training that doesn't match what companies are looking for. Some live in regions where there simply are no jobs. Some aren't willing to work under the conditions and for the pay on offer. And some, in fact, are working, just off the books. The number of workers without a formal employment contract in the second quarter was 101,022, up 7.3 percent. More than 51 percent of them are in agriculture, forestry and fishing, and around 17.2 percent in construction.

Then there's demography. In 2025, 15,850 children were born in Macedonia and 20,287 people died. Emigration is taking exactly the people who are supposed to fill these listings.

The missing number

The average net salary in July was 48,499 denars. How many of the hospitality and retail listings actually pay that much, nobody publishes. And that would be the most useful number in the whole story.

The question for the institutions is simple: when 101,022 people work without a contract and thousands of listings sit unfilled, is anyone checking where those two numbers meet?