Among the many challenges faced by between 560 to 730 thousand people with disabilities (PWDs) in Serbia, unemployment is the most prevalent. Only 13 percent of them are employed, compared to the EU where an average of 50 percent of PWDs are employed.
To counter this trend, in 2021 the Youth with Disabilities Forum launched a portal to spur employment of persons with disabilities www.zaposljavanje.fmi.rs that connects employers with potential candidates in search for job opportunities. By creating a profile in the portal, PWDs can track job openings and apply for jobs they are interested in, while employers use the portal to advertise job openings and select candidates who match the job requirements.
Currently more than one hundred companies from different parts of Serbia, including A1, Wurth, Tehnomanija, IKEA, Addiko Bank, Wiener Stadtische osiguranje ado Belgrade, TeleSign, advertised a variety of jobs on the portal, from bookkeeper, salesman, software engineer, lawyer, graphic designer, social media manager, sales representative, and others.
“In the forthcoming period the Forum of Youth with Disabilities, in partnership with USAID, we will work to further improve the functionalities of the site and increase it utilization to help improve the social and economic position of PWDs. We invite companies to register on the portal and get access to the profiles of several hundred candidates looking for employment. We also invite PWDs looking for employment to create profiles on the portal and apply for open positions”, said Jovana Krivokuća – Milovanović, executive director of the Youth with Disabilities Forum.
The portal will be further developed as part of the Job Fit: Economic empowerment of persons with disabilities project, financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Youth with Disabilities Forum. Other project partners include Caritas Serbia, the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, Smart Kolektiv and the Center for Independent Living Serbia.
