The ILO piloted an AI Job Hub in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2025 that maps job ads to the EU's ESCO skills taxonomy and scores vacancies on pay, safety and contract quality; the EU proposed extending it to ~300 counsellors, but no matching results are published yet.
International Labour Organization (ILO), with the EU4Employment programme
Period
2025–present (pilot)
Keywords
public employment services, labour market intelligence, artificial intelligence
Context
With support from the ILO Innovation Challenge Fund and the EU4Employment programme, the International Labour Organization began piloting an AI-driven 'Job Hub' in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2025, presenting it publicly on 3 March 2026.
Activities
The tool automatically collects and harmonises real-time job advertisements from national and local job portals, then uses AI to map required skills to the EU's ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) taxonomy, including transversal and emerging skills outside standard classifications. It also scores each vacancy on job-quality indicators — contract stability, working hours, pay transparency, occupational safety and potential discrimination — and lets employment counsellors search and filter the continuously updated vacancy database by occupation, location, sector and quality dimension.
Results
As of the March 2026 announcement, the initiative remains a single-country pilot: the ILO names no institution as the operating public employment service, and no figures are published on vacancies, counsellors or jobseekers using the tool, or on placement outcomes.
Conclusions
The EU has proposed funding a wider rollout to roughly 300 public-employment-service counsellors across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the ILO has stated an ambition to extend the model across the Western Balkans, but neither expansion had occurred by the time of reporting.
Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Not disclosed in available sources.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Piloted from 2025, publicly presented 3 March 2026; proposed expansion (EU funding, ~300 counsellors) and Western Balkans extension not yet realised.
Staffing & skills
International Labour Organization (ILO), lead implementer, ILO Innovation Challenge Fund and EU4Employment programme (funding/backing), Employment counsellors as end users (institution not named)
Conditions for success
Built on the EU's open ESCO skills taxonomy to support future cross-border transferability