Below is an article published by SETimes.com:

Since the onset of the global recession, ethnic minorities in the region are facing a new social-economic status, and the lack of representation in the government and public sector institutions has compounded the problem, analysts said.

"The state has completely forgotten national minorities right now. Their councils have no jurisdiction over finances, and have minority representation and decision making [powers] in education, culture, and the official use of language. National minorities can expect only the civil sector to promote their economic interests," Jelena Loncar, associate at the Centre for Regionalism in Novi Sad, told SETimes.

According to her, the first step towards solving the problems of minorities in Serbia is raising public awareness on the types of structural discrimination they face. Almost 60,000 Albanians make up the ethnic majority in three municipalities in south Serbia, the least developed part of the country with the highest unemployment rates.

According to Driton Salihu, a Presevo Albanian, the crisis in south Serbia started years before the global crisis, causing production halt, closing of companies and job loss.

"Many youth don't return after completing their studies … they have no job prospects here," Salihu told SETimes.

In Croatia, 200,000 ethnic Serbs are the largest minority. Branko Jurisic, head of the Serbian National Council in Zagreb, told SETimes that it is pointless to expect the implementation of laws that guarantee priority to minorities in employment, since the regulation was not applied prior to the crisis.

"We have no data of how many Serbs mention their ethnicity on job applications … but we know that some job openings [for which Serbs also applied] were cancelled due to lack of matching candidates," Jurisic said.

Hungarians represent a significant minority in several Balkan countries. They are the largest minority in Romania with 6.7 percent. Their participation in the public sector is difficult because many jobs are reserved for Romanians.

"Unemployment in this province is significantly higher … maybe because the Hungarian minority here doesn't have guaranteed seats in the parliament," Ana-Maria Sabo, a Hungarian Democratic Community of Romania representative, told SETimes.

About 254,000 Hungarians live in Vojvodina in northern Serbia, and are the majority in eight municipalities, but most are jobless or earn low incomes.

"Some foreign investors said that they'd invest in Vojvodina because they like its work force, the citizens' willingness and capacity for work, but they don't want to risk it," Elvira Kovac, a member of the Vojvodina Hungarians Alliance in the Serbian parliament, told SETimes.

She said employment for ethnic minorities in the public sector is a separate problem. In 2006, the Serbian government adopted a law that mandates the number of minorities employed in the public sector is proportionate to their local population numbers.

"I'm still not sure why this decision wasn't implemented on the ground," Kovac said.

When contacted by SETimes, the Serbian Ministry of Labour said the law was not under their jurisdiction.