Serbian Monitor

WORKERS IN WORK FOR CUSTOMERS IN BUT ARE PAID AS IF THEY WERE FROM ASIA
Judging by production and export results from 2025, Kragujevac has once again, like four and a half decades ago, become an industrial centre and one of the engines of Serbia’s economic development.

Last year, companies in Kragujevac exported goods worth more than €1.8 billion, with a record foreign trade surplus of €517 million. By comparison, Serbia recorded a trade deficit of nearly €8.8 billion in goods exchange with the rest of the world, and in this century has only once, in 2022, seen a wider gap between imports and exports.

The results of Kragujevac’s enterprises carry additional weight because 80% of exports to foreign customers consist of cars, trams, railcars, parts for passenger and rail vehicles, and other finished high-tech products, 90% of which end up in markets such as Italy, Germany, and other EU countries.
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MASSIVE LAYOFFS IN SERBIAN IT INDUSTRY
The wave of closures was triggered by the Italian company Lottomatica, which shut down its entire branch in Serbia in mid-March, with 348 employees dismissed in a single day.

This was followed by layoffs at the company Block, and then the closure of Zendesk’s office in Belgrade, where 60 people were employed. According to employees’ announcements, Playstudios is also expected to cease its operations here.

The reasons cited for such a sudden and simultaneous shutdown of as many as four companies from one of the most dynamic sectors of the Serbian economy range from business optimisation and increased use of artificial intelligence, to the reduction and abolition of incentives for the industry, as well as rising labour costs.

Milan Šolaja, Director of the Vojvodina ICT Cluster, says that according to available data, 348 employees of Lottomatica/PWO lost their jobs, Zendesk (formerly Novi Sad-based Tymeshift) laid off around 60, while the number for Playstudios has not yet been officially confirmed but is estimated at several dozen.

“Block is a global story – 4,000 layoffs out of more than 10,000 employees, with the number in Serbia unknown. In total, roughly speaking, between 450 and 550 jobs have been lost within about ten days,” Šolaja adds.

Each case had its own logic. Lottomatica represents a typical post-acquisition consolidation. They acquired SKS365 for €639 million, the Belgrade team worked for two years on platform migration, and was disbanded as soon as the job was completed. Artificial intelligence is present in their corporate strategy, but it is not the immediate reason for these layoffs, he says.
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Serbian Monitor

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