The Slovak unemployment rate reached 6.86% in February, down by 0.1 percentage points (pp) month-on-month and down from 7.9% posted a year ago, according to the latest data released by the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre.
The labour office analysts stressed that Slovak unemployment has remained below 7% for the past five months. "I am pleased that immediately after easing the pandemic measures, unemployment in Slovakia fell again. I am convinced that the well-adjusted measures by the labour ministry have contributed to this, too," said Labour, Social Affairs and Family Minister Milan Krajniak. He expects the current trend to continue.
According to the Social Policy Institute, the Slovak labour market has coped well with the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is interesting to note that, along with a slightly decreasing unemployment rate, the number of job vacancies is increasing significantly.
"We continue to see a high number of vacancies that are difficult to fill with domestic workers. The number of vacancies exceeded 79,000 in February. M/m, they increased by more than 3,000, i.e. by 4.25%," noted institute analyst Matus Baliak.