North Macedonia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications, Aleksandar Nikolloski, said yesterday that the country is facing a labor shortage. He described the government’s decision to increase the annual quota for foreign workers from 10,000 to 13,000 as reasonable.
Nikolloski said the figure should be increased further next year.
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“If you want my opinion, I think that next year it should rise to 20,000, and by 2030 we should reach 50,000 foreign workers per year who will work in Macedonia if we want to maintain this level of GDP growth,” he said last night on the “360” program. According to him, “Bechtel and Enka” no longer face a labor shortage because the quota has been increased, whereas before the change the company was short of 670 workers.
For 2026, the government has set a quota of 10,000 work permits for foreign nationals, which will begin to be implemented on January 16. Of these, 9,750 permits are earmarked for regular employment, 200 for foreign workers sent to the country, and 50 for seasonal work. Within the regular employment category, 4,500 permits will be issued to new workers, while 5,250 will be used to extend existing permits.
Data show that the number of foreign workers with residence permits reached 6,128 in 2025, three and a half times higher than five years ago, when such permits were issued to 1,704 people. The greatest demand for foreign workers has been recorded in the construction, industry, hospitality and trade sectors. The largest numbers of workers come from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Turkey, China and the Philippines./Telegrafi/
