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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Over half of the active enterprises in the country, or about 50.9% of them, operated without any paid employees, according to official INSTAT data.
This phenomenon of self-employment dominance becomes even more evident among new entrants to the market, where the number of businesses registering with zero employees increases to 56.9%. The data shows that a significant portion of economic activity in the country relies on a single individual, creating a fragmented structure that offers little room for mass employment.
At the sectoral level, the main weight of this trend is borne by service activities and transportation.
The other services sector leads the list with 67.1% of enterprises without employees, closely followed by transportation and warehousing, where two out of three active businesses do not have any salaried employees.
A similar situation is also present in the technology and trade sectors, where the figures fluctuate above 55%, confirming that even in branches considered to be rapidly growing, such as information and communication, the work model remains largely individual.
Even more worrying is the profile of new businesses emerging in the services sector, where almost 74% of them start their activity without any employees.
Meanwhile, sectors that require capital investments and machinery, such as the extractive industry or energy production, remain the only ones where businesses with zero employees are in the minority.
One of the main reasons is related to fiscal policies and tax incentives for small businesses. For years, a range of businesses have benefited from zero corporate tax and simplified administrative schemes.
This has created an economic incentive for individuals to register as natural persons (often as consultants, IT, or traders) to optimize taxes, instead of being employed on a salary by another company, where the burden of insurance and personal income tax would be higher.
Most businesses in Albania operate in sectors such as retail, transportation (taxis or delivery), and professional services, which require minimal start-up capital. In these conditions, individuals find it easier to open a sole proprietorship than to join larger structures, leading to what is known as market fragmentation.
Freelancing has also played an important role in recent years, especially in the information and communications sector. Many young professionals offer services to domestic or foreign clients by registering as separate entities, without the need or ability to hire others.
This high concentration of businesses without employees in the vast majority of economic activities shows that the Albanian economy is mainly producing micro-enterprises which, although they keep consumption alive, have a very limited capacity to generate welfare through wage increases or labor market expansion./Monitor
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