17 August
Compared to previous years, the number of those who have a negative reaction to the EU has increased from 28 to 41 percent, according to a survey by the Umbrella Youth Organization.
More than 60 percent of young men and women aged 15 to 30 in Serbia have no income, two thirds live with their parents, as many as 87 percent of young people are not married, and most of them do not do the job for which they were educated. That is why it should come as no surprise that every second young person in Serbia plans to move out of the country, and most of them see their future in Western European countries, according to the latest research by the Serbian Youth Umbrella Organization entitled “Alternative Report on Position and Needs young people in Serbia ”.
A study conducted on a representative sample of 1,219 young people, aged 15 to 30, throughout Serbia and which will be presented to the public today, on International Youth Day, also shows that unemployment, the value system, corruption and hopelessness are the main problems of the generation at the crossroads of childhood and youth.
The high unemployment rate of young people is worrying: as much as 63 percent have no income, every fourth earns less than the average, and only every tenth earns more than the average salary in Serbia, said Stefan Djordjevic, a representative of the Umbrella Youth Organization of Serbia for the fourth year in a row, it publishes an alternative report on the position and needs of young people in our country.
Official data from the National Employment Service testify that in May, 104,702 young people were out of work, which means that young people make up a fifth of the unemployed in Serbia. Although the official statistics show a drop of nine percent of the unemployed compared to 2019, it should not be forgotten that a large number of them emigrated from Serbia. The fact that one third of those with university degrees are out of work is also discouraging. The workbook is most often obtained by young people who have completed secondary vocational school. Although the majority of young people of this age are in the process of schooling, these data are still worrying, because low wages or their absence affect independence from their parents. Therefore, it is not surprising that only 12 percent of young people are married, 87 percent have not yet stepped on a crazy stone, and less than one percent of them are divorced or have lost a spouse – says Stefan Djordjevic.
Our interlocutor adds that as many as 62% of young people do not work in the profession, which speaks enough about the incompatibility of the labour market with the education system and poor professional orientation. Every fourth young person thinks that there is no need for their knowledge and diploma on the labour market, and most of them are ready to give up their professional dreams and retrain in order to get their bread crust.
Researching the values of young people, we came to the fact that less than half of them believe that democracy is the best form of government, so it is not surprising that as many as 56 percent of young people believe that Serbia needs a strong leader when the people follow. Euro-scepticism is also growing. Compared to previous years, the number of young people who have a negative reaction to the European Union has increased from 28 to 41 percent, and the number of young people who have a positive view of the EU has dropped from a quarter to a fifth. Only a third of young people support Serbia’s entry into the family of European nations, a fifth are undecided, and 46 percent are against the EU. Young people in Serbia predominantly think that Serbia should rely more on Russia in foreign policy, and the number of those who believe that we should look for political allies in China is growing – our interlocutor states.
According to this research, almost two thirds are against joining NATO, and most young people believe that Serbia should work on withdrawing the recognition of Kosovo, then on the reconciliation of Serbs and Albanians, and leave the issue of Kosovo for later. Also, every fifth young person thinks that Serbia should recognize Kosovo, but with changed borders so that the majority of the Serbian population stays in Serbia.
Data on political activism of young people show that 40 percent of young people regularly go to the polls, one third occasionally vote, and every third never exercises their right to vote. Young people from Belgrade vote more regularly, and girls are the ones who go to the polls more often. As many as 86 percent of young people say that they are not a member of any party, only seven percent of them have a party card, two percent used to be a foreigner, while four percent of them are considering joining.
– In the current convocation of the National Assembly, which was constituted after the republican elections on June 21, there are 28 deputies younger than 30, the most in the last two decades – Djordjevic notes.
This study also shows that the largest number of young people, as many as 98 percent of them, get information about the world around them by phone, ie through information portals and social networks. Not daily, but occasionally. More than 90 percent of young people have a profile on “Facebook” and “Instagram”, a third use “Twitter”, a quarter “Ticket”, and a fifth “LinkedIn”. Most of them communicate through direct messages on “Instagram”, and then through “Viber”, “Facebook Messenger” and “WhatsApp”.
