Unemployment spell and vertical skills mismatches: The case of Macedonia’s youth

The past two decades were characterized by high and persistent youth unemployment rates in Macedonia; this is despite the many active workfare policies addressed to the youth population. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature by investigating the impact that a longer unemployment spell has had on the labour market mismatch of young Macedonian job-seekers. The empirical analysis builds on different econometric model approaches based on the Schoolto-Work Transition Survey (SWTS) conducted by the ILO in 2012. Our results clearly suggest that longer unemployment spells lead to higher mismatches, but that such effects are heterogeneous across educational attainment groups of low, middle and highly educated young job seekers ; Youth, unemployment, mismatch, job search duration, Macedonia.