Unemployment in Slovakia

Slovakia’s unemployment rate reached 9.72 percent in February, a month-on-month increase of 0.69 percentage points, said the director of the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre, Jan Sihelský, on Tuesday, March 17.

Unemployment is expected to continue rising in March, the TASR newswire reported.

Labour offices registered 289,608 unemployed last month. The highest unemployment rate was in Banská Bystrica Region (16.11 percent), followed by Prešov and Košice Regions (14.83 and 14.74 percent respectively). Rising unemployment was registered at all labour offices in February.

The number of job vacancies fell by 410 compared to January. Employers filed 16 applications for support to maintain 5 941 jobs. Sihelský said that unemployment is also predicted to increase in the months ahead. For example, during week ten of this year, employers announced nine mass layoffs that will affect 500 jobs. Since October of last year, there have been 199 mass layoffs involving the loss of 21,580 jobs.

JOY