Employment in North Macedonia’s industry fell by 2.9% in one year

In September 2026, the country’s industry had 2.9 percent fewer workers than in the same month of the previous year, according to the State Statistical Office of North Macedonia. The sharpest decline was recorded in mining and quarrying.

Sectoral data show that employment in mining and quarrying fell by 7.6 percent year on year, while manufacturing employment declined by 2.9 percent.

Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply was the only sector to record an increase: the number of workers rose by 1.5 percent.

Declines were recorded across all major industrial groups. The steepest was among non-durable consumer goods, where employment contracted by 4.5 percent.

In capital and intermediate goods, excluding energy, the number of workers fell by 2.7 percent. Employment in durable consumer goods declined by 1.7 percent, while energy employment fell by 1.6 percent.

The decline is also evident in data covering a longer period: during the first nine months of 2026, industry had 2.8 percent fewer workers than in the same period of 2025.