The unemployment rate of women continues to be high. Finding a job is also harder for middle-aged women. A large portion of them are left out of the labour market for a long time, therefore returning to work becomes harder over the years. Middle-aged women need access to information related to employment, updating their skills and need support from relevant policy-making institutions and employment support institutions. Kosovo’s civil society organizations should also advocate for adults to have access to employment. These themes and many more were discussed at Tuesday’s Salon with the topic “How difficult is it for middle-aged women to find job in Kosovo?”.
Some of the key recommendations from the panelists and attendees were to improve the system and forms of access to information on employment for middle-aged women, to provide support in updating their skills in line with labor market requirements and to enhance institutional cooperation with the private sector providing administrative facilities to businesses that employ these women. In addition, the need to advocate for this issue was emphasized given that middle-aged women are one of the most discriminated categories in the labor market in Kosovo.
Participants of the panel in this discussion were: Muhamet Klinaku, Director, Department of Labor Market, Agency for Employment of the Republic of Kosovo; Iliriana Jaka Gashi, Director, Kosovo Women for Women; and Olivera Ceni, Director, Department for Economic and Political Analysis, Kosovo Chamber of Commerce. The Salon was moderated by Blerinë Ukshini, Project Coordinator, Democracy for Development Institute and the editorial will be written by Nita Zogiani, Project Manager, Kosovar Center for Gender Studies.
