The transition from school to work is a very important stage in the life of the youngsters,
during which they aim at a satisfactory integration in the labour market. However, in this process
they often face different barriers, such as high unemployment rates, and economic inactivity. In
Albania, youth unemployment is about twice as much as that of the total unemployment rates and has
shown an increasing trend during the last years. In 2014, 32.5% of the youngsters were unemployed.
Furthermore, the rate of those not being in employment, education, and/or training in 2014 was 34.5%,
of which 36% are unemployed, while the rest remain out of the labour market because they are
discouraged (23%), dealing with household chores and family responsibilities (19.4%) or any other
reason (21.4%). From a gender perspective, male youngsters are more active than females, with an
extremely high difference of about 30 percentage points between them, although the inactivity rates
are almost equal.
This paper uses the Albanian Living Standards Measurement Survey 2012 to investigate the factors
that affect the transition from school to work in Albania. It employs survival model estimation and
uses the time span from education completion to their first job as a dependent variable and several
individual, household and community/regional level independent variables. Our findings indicate that
age, the level and field of education, and family background are important determinants of the
transition towards the first job. Several recommendations with regards to decreasing transition times
are provided in the paper.