Serbia’s unemployment rate declined to 7.2% in the second quarter of 2026, but the fall coincided with fewer employed people and a larger inactive population, pointing to weaker overall labour-market participation. The unemployment rate dropped from 8.9% in the first quarter and 8.5% a year earlier. The number of unemployed people decreased 17.5% year on year to 220,200.
Employment declines despite lower unemployment
Employment moved in the opposite direction. The number of employed people fell 1.6% year on year to 2.84 million, while the employment rate decreased by 0.6 percentage point to 50.9%. At the same time, the number of people outside the labour force reached 2.52 million. The inactivity rate increased by 1.3 percentage points compared with the same period a year earlier.
The changes mean that the reduction in the number of unemployed people was not accompanied by an increase in total employment.
Services increase share of employment
The structure of employment also shifted between major sectors. Services accounted for 60.4% of total employment, compared with 59.2% a year earlier. Industry represented 22.2%, down from 23.2% over the same period. The combination of lower unemployment, declining employment and rising inactivity leaves the headline jobless rate alongside broader changes in labour-force participation.
