The female labour force in an urban economy during transition: A view from the City of Nis

• Differences in labour force quality are not followed by the level of wages.
• The increase in female share influences the increase in labour force quality rate.
• Presence of economically unjustified neglect of female labour force.

The aim of this paper is to analyse labour force quality and wage issues in the third largest city in Serbia in the post-socialist period. The paper examines the differences in wages and labour force quality, looking at the gap created as a result of differences in the amount of earnings and employers’ perception of labour force quality. The findings show that there are no significant differences in the level of wages, but that there is a significant difference in the labour force quality according to the employers’ test results. The research reveals a positive correlation between the share of female employees and employers’ perception of the labour force quality, whereby an increase of 1% in the female share has resulted in an increase in the employment quality rate by 0.439.