ROMA AND NON-ROMA ON CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKETS
Policy brief Niall O’Higgins, Università di Salerno
The Roma are arguably both the largest ‘minority’ ethnic group in Central and Southeastern Europe and the ethnic group that has suffered most from transition to the market. Recent survey data show that, while some progress was made during the 2004-2011 period—particularly in terms of reducing the gaps between Roma and non-Roma school participation rates, wages, and joblessness—Roma continue to experience pronounced labour market disadvantages. Roma face structural barriers to employment. Moreover, many of the factors contributing to continuing high Roma unemployment rates cannot be explained by gaps in education or qualification. Gender gaps are particularly important both in employment as well as wages.
Figure 1: Ratio of Roma to non-Roma jobless rates, 20113 SK RS RO MK ME MD HR H
1,4
1,7 1,5 1,6 1,4 1,4 1,4 1,6 1,5 1,4 1,6 1,7 1,8 1,3
1,5
BG BA AL
1,5 1,4 1,5 1,3 1,4
Women
2,2 2,7
CZ
Data from the UNDP/World Bank/European Commission regional Roma Survey 2011 suggest that the relative situation of Roma as measured by joblessness improved—slightly— between 2004 and 2011. However, these data also show that Roma continue to experience unemployment and jobless rates far above—and employment rates and wages far below—those of majority populations. For example, these data suggest that Roma face jobless rates that exceed the rates facing non-Roma survey respondents living in close proximity to Roma communities by 30% to 250% (Figure 1).2
Men
1,7
3,5
Source: Calculated from the UNDP/WB/EC regional Roma survey 2011. Note: The jobless rate is defined as the proportion of the gender-/ethnicspecific working age (15-64) population which is neither in education nor employment. A ratio of 1.0 implies no difference in Roma versus non-Roma jobless rates.
1/ This brief is based on a broader research paper elaborated in the context of the UNDP background paper series on Roma inclusion. The series includes also thematic reports on education, health, poverty, gender, migration and civil society. The individual papers will be released in the course of December 2012 – February 2013 and once released, can be accessed from the Roma- section of UNDP BRC website: http://europeandcis.undp.org/ourwork/roma/. 2/ The jobless rate is used rather than the unemployment rate as an indicator of labour market problems here. In this context, the jobless (or NEET) rate—the proportion of the working age population that is neither in education nor employment—is preferred to the unemployment rate because it includes also discouraged workers. The downside is that, although its relevance is being increasingly recognised internationally, the jobless rate is not yet widely reported in national statistics, which prevents comparison with the data reported here. 3/ For visual clarity, the following abbreviations were used in the graphs: AL (Albania), BA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), BG (Bulgaria), H (Hungary), HR (Republic of Croatia), CZ (Czech Republic), MD (Moldova), ME (Montenegro), MK (FYR of Macedonia), RO (Romania), RS (Republic of Serbia), and SK (Slovakia). The abbreviations are following the country codes used by EUROSTAT, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa. eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Glossary:Country_codes
1