More Workers Returning to Serbia Than Leaving?

It is estimated that, from October 2020 until the same month last year, 15,000 more workers returned to Serbia than left the country. Serbia is thereby becoming a country where people are returning, and the reason is not the pandemic, they point out at the non-profit organization “Returning Point”. Among the returnees are IT experts and mechanical engineers, so the inflow of highly educated people is higher than the outflow. Germany still needs workers, but the costs of living have doubled, so the savings are minimal.

What no decree can do has been done by the market, so the investors have doubled the wages due to a chronic lack of workers.

– The daily wage for a handyman is now EUR 60 to 70, and the daily wage for a physical worker is EUR 30 to 35. So, it’s serious money for somebody who works the entire month. Not to mention some crafts, like tilers, where a good tiler does not earn below EUR 100 per day – points out Veselin Raznatovic of Ekspres Inzenjering.

Germany will still have a chronic need for construction workers, because of the 850,000 of them, 150,000 are to retire.

According to the data of “Returning Point”, among the returnees are IT experts and mechanical engineers, and as many as one half of the students, as soon as they graduate, go back to the country thanks to the quick degree validation.

– What we used to call a big problem, the brain drain, is not such a big problem now, because, in fact, there are now more highly educated people returning than leaving – says Ivan Brkljac, the director of “Returning Point”.

For some, the motive for coming back is that an increasing number of companies in the world, especially in IT, is introducing remote work. For others, the motive is family expansion, because there is a possibility of the grandparents babysitting the children in Serbia, and the prices of the services of kindergartens and babysitters are also lower than in, Britain or America, for example, where nearly an entire salary is spent on it.

Ekspres inženjering d.o.o. Beograd

Ekspres inženjering

non profit organization Tačka povratka

non profit organization Returning Point

Saša Stefanović

Veselin Ražnatović

Nenad Radičević

Ivan Brkljač

lack of workforce

return of workforce

daily wage for handymen

daily wage for physical workers

daily wage for tilers

lack of construction workers

remote work