Jobs in Serbia in 2026: More Openings, but Job Hunting Hasn’t Gotten Easier for Everyone

We looked at data for January–June 2026 from three sources: the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS), Serbia’s largest general job board, Poslovi Infostud, and our own platform, Ovde Jobs. Below, we bring the figures together to show where they align, where they differ, and why someone’s personal experience of looking for work may not match the market averages. Whenever we discuss Serbia as a whole, the figures come from SORS and Infostud. Data from our own platform is clearly labelled: Ovde Jobs has a specific audience, and presenting it as representative of the entire country would be misleading.

Serbia’s labour market: More openings, but not across the board

According to SORS, Serbia’s unemployment rate stood at 7.2% in the second quarter of 2026, down 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier. At the same time, the number of employed people fell by 45,800, the number of unemployed people fell by 46,800, and the number of people outside the labour force rose by 61,900. These are three separate population groups, and a lower unemployment rate does not mean that more people are working. Some people simply stopped being counted as jobseekers, and these figures do not tell us who they were or why.

Registered employment in the same quarter stood at 2,355,940, down 0.6% year on year. Employment fell by 3.6% in manufacturing, while it rose by 2.1% in food service and by 2.5% in software development and related consulting. These are official SORS figures based on administrative records, not on the number of open positions.

Poslovi Infostud published 32,713 job ads between January and June, around 3% more than in the same period last year. Retail had the most openings, with 6,570 ads, followed by manufacturing with 3,389, services and skilled trades with 2,962, tourism and hospitality with 2,429, and construction and architecture with 2,232. Construction grew by 15%, while tourism and hospitality grew by 13%.

The number of IT job ads on Infostud fell sharply: 1,633 compared with 2,508 a year earlier, a drop of almost 35%. Interestingly, Infostud itself initially gave a rounded figure of “around 32%” in a press release, then published a more precise number in a later article. We checked both sources and used the updated figure. It is a useful reminder that even official numbers are worth double-checking rather than simply repeating the first figure you come across. In a separate group of roles requiring higher qualifications, the number of ads fell by about 5%, from 17,424 to 16,574, while the average number of applications per ad rose from 79 to 82. Fewer opportunities and more applicants for each one: that is what sits behind the phrase “competition among skilled professionals is growing.”

A separate note on salaries. The average net salary for January–June was RSD 119,469, up 11.5% in nominal terms and 8.4% after adjusting for inflation compared with a year earlier. In June, the average salary was RSD 120,401, while the median, meaning the amount below which half of all employees earned, was just RSD 94,281. A difference of RSD 26,000 between the average and the median in a single month is a good illustration of why the “average salary in Serbia” tells us very little about what a typical person actually earns.

To sum it all up in one sentence: employers across Serbia are posting slightly more job ads than they were a year ago, but the growth is uneven. Services, construction, and tourism are growing, IT has fallen by almost a third, and a lower unemployment rate does not mean that finding a job has become easier for everyone.

Where Ovde Jobs has the most vacancies, and where employers receive the most applications

Now let’s look at our own platform. Between January and June, we recorded 617 distinct job listings, counting reposts and versions published in other languages only once. Of these, 221, or 35.8%, were in the “kitchen and front-of-house” category: cooks, waiters, bartenders, and kitchen assistants. This was by far the largest category on the platform.

But the number of job ads and the number of applications they receive do not follow the same pattern. We calculated the median number of accumulated applications for each role group. Here is what we found:

Kitchen and front-of-house, the category with the largest number of openings, sits near the bottom of the table by median applications. Support and administrative roles, meanwhile, are posted far less often but attract several times more applications per listing. Software development is another surprise: there were only 18 listings in six months, but they also received relatively few applications, with a median of 13.5.

One important caveat: these are cumulative application counts across all versions of a listing, not the number of unique candidates or the number of people competing for a single position. The right conclusion is not “it is impossible to get a kitchen job.” It is that applications are distributed very unevenly across different roles, even when the salary and working conditions are the same. Both jobseekers and employers should take this into account. Jobseekers need to understand that their personal experience depends on their specific profession, not on the market as a whole. Employers posting in a category with fewer applications should look not only at the number they receive, but also at how well those applicants match the requirements.

What the salary in a job ad really means

Of our 617 listings, 483, or 78.3%, included a numerical indication of pay: a rate, a salary range, or a percentage. But that is not the same as a clear fixed salary. Ads may quote pay in euros, dinars, US dollars, or roubles, and may give a rate per hour, shift, month, year, lesson, or project. Some include tips, commission, or projected earnings at full capacity. They do not always specify whether the amount is net or gross. With so many different formats, a single “average salary on Ovde Jobs” would be misleading, so we do not calculate one.

The difference can be substantial even when the hourly rate is identical. Take a hypothetical rate of RSD 500 per hour. At 160 hours a month, that comes to RSD 80,000. At 200 hours, the same hourly rate becomes RSD 100,000. On paper, the pay is the same. In practice, there is a difference of RSD 20,000 and 40 hours of free time each month.

When we compared different versions of the same job ad, we found 15 cases where the pay details did not match, for example, different amounts or salary ranges for the same role at the same company. That does not necessarily mean there was an error; the terms may simply have changed between postings.

Jobs without Serbian: What the title suggests and what the requirements actually say

The language used in a job title does not always match the language of the rest of the listing. Sometimes the role is titled in English while the responsibilities and requirements are written in Russian, or vice versa. That means you cannot calculate the share of jobs that do not require Serbian simply by looking at the title or checking whether the word “Serbian” appears prominently in the ad.

Across the requirements and responsibilities sections of our 617 listings, Serbian was mentioned in 265 cases, English in 266, and Russian in 117. These are simply mentions in the text, including cases where the language was listed as preferred or optional. The categories overlap, so these figures cannot be converted into an exact percentage of jobs where Serbian is mandatory.

We also looked specifically at the demand for English-language versions of job ads. Among 311 pairs where both the Russian and English versions had recorded views, the English versions received 2,009 of the 10,406 total applications, or 19.3%. At least one application was submitted through the English version in 276 of the 311 pairs. In other words, people do read and apply through the English-language pages.

The practical takeaway for jobseekers is simple: do not rely on the language of the job title. Open the full listing and read the requirements carefully. That is usually where you will find out whether Serbian is required, what level is expected, and why it is needed for the role.

How to use this data in your job search

Here are a few practical takeaways you can use right away.

Compare vacancies using the local name for the role, not just its Russian translation. The same position may have different titles at different companies, and that can affect how many applications it receives.

Compare like with like, not just job titles. Before deciding that one vacancy pays better than another, check the currency, pay period, whether the amount is net or gross, and how much of the pay is guaranteed, as outlined in the checklist above.

Track your own application funnel. If you are applying for roles with a low median application count, such as kitchen and front-of-house positions, the competition for an employer’s attention is higher simply because of the structure of the market. If your field is closer to support, administration, or logistics, our data suggests that these vacancies receive noticeably fewer applications relative to the number of openings.