On a typical morning in Tirana, as the city begins its day amidst the hustle and bustle, a silent reality emerges on the banks of the Lana River, dozens of men waiting in line, not for help, but for a day of work. They are the invisible workers of the informal economy, people who are not recognized by statistics, but who carry the burden of their families on their backs, without a contract, without insurance, without any guarantee that the day will bring income.
Avniu, a 46-year-old from Tirana, is just one of those who try to provide income for their family through illegal work. But what is it like to wake up in the morning and hope that someone will hire you?
"I leave the house at 6 in the morning, I stay here for 5 hours. Some days I have work. Some days I don't. Today was good, I worked from 7 to 9," he says, as he stands in a central area by Lana. Fatmir says that what he earns is not enough to cover his living costs and he is always looking for a day's work by the benches of Lana.
"There are 30 people, here we have 15-30 days without work," he says, but today was one of Fatmir's lucky days; someone needed his job, and he leaves.
Others, like a 40-year-old father of three daughters, say they don't recognize the weekend as a day off, even though it doesn't always bring in income.
Unemployment continues to remain a problem in the country, a gap that was further exacerbated by the pandemic.
According to INSTAT, the current unemployment rate is 11.6 percent, a figure far from 2019, where this indicator was at 11.2 percent, in other words, there are 36,811 fewer employees. (A2 Televizion)
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