Countries of the former Yugoslavia are the main source of labour for the growing Slovenian economy, with many Slovenian companies resorting to new strategies to get workers from the region.

Due to the lack of labour force in some professions, Slovenian businesses have been increasingly turning to importing workers from countries in the region. Even though restrictions on Croatians have been lifted on July 1, the lack of skilled labour is so large that the measure will not be enough, Poslovni Dnevnik daily reported on Friday.

At Akrapovic, a renowned Slovenian company which makes car exhaust systems, solved the problem of finding skilled welders by offering a €250 incentive to existing employees who recommend or bring in future workers. Since adopting the measure, some 80 new jobs have been created in a relatively short period of time, with a portion of their workers also coming from vocational school around the region.

“Schools educate welders up to a certain degree, and then those students come to us where they get practical training. If they prove themselves, we offer them jobs,” said CEO of Akrapovic, Uros Rosa, for the Slovenian business daily Finance. This way, 35 workers from Bosnia have been employed at the company so far, and they have a similar system in place for workers from Croatia, 20 of whom have been hired recently.

The company, based at Ivancna Gorica in central Slovenia, also helps new workers find lodgings, pays for a Slovenian language course, while their managers learn Croatian and Serbian. All this is part of a new strategy that Slovenian employers were forced to adopt in order to keep quality workers at their companies, adding that the problem is not attracting workers, but keeping them at the company.

Slovenian employers said that after the lifting of work permits for Croatians this July the number of job applications by Croatians has increased, especially in border areas. But they add that trained professionals are becoming scarce across the region, as many of them opt to go to Austria or Germany, Poslovni Dnevnik reported.

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