The unemployment rate in Slovakia stood at 6.54 percent in August, down by 0.16 percentage points (p.p.) month-on-month and by 2.89 p.p. year-on-year, the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre informed on Wednesday. As for individual regions, all eight regions in Slovakia recorded cuts in the unemployment rate in August, with the Prešov region seeing the most significant drop. Labour offices reported 69,104 job vacancies in late August, down by 8,045 vacancies m-o-m. The highest number of jobs was available in the Bratislava region, while the lowest was in Košice region.
"The positive trend continues. We are seeing a decreasing number of registered unemployed, and, more importantly, more and more employed people are working in Slovakia, both are certainly positive trends," said Labour Minister Ján Richter on Wednesday, adding that this positive figure is not only the result of favourable developments in the economy but is also the result of policies and projects introduced by individual labour offices.
However, according to an analyst, a more pronounced drop in the unemployment rate is being counteracted by an unsuitable composition of the unemployed population, as businesses struggle to find suitable candidates to fill vacancies. Ľuboš Sirota from McRoy explains that jobless people in Slovakia often lack qualifications, working habits or, most critically, even the desire to get a job. Moreover, the available vacancies do not match the labour force registered with job centres.
