More job offers with home office, gender gap remains wide. How labour market has been developing

These were the trends of the Slovak labour market in the past year.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: SME)

This article was published in the Career & Employment Guide 2020, our special annual publication focused on the labour market, human resources and education.

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Trends in seeking employment

- The number of job offers published on the Profesia.sk job portal in 2019 was lower than the year before. It amounted to 262,173, the fewest in the past three years. About 17 jobseekers on average responded to one job offer.

- HR experts have reported a drop in the number of job offers in the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors, due to the coronavirus pandemic. This does not concern only production workers, but also technicians, specialists and engineers, according to the Grafton Recruitment agency. On the contrary, the demand for retail employees is increasing. This includes cashiers, shop assistants, warehousers and food distributors.

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Explore Slovak labour market and human resource trends (for more details visit shop.spectator.sk)Explore Slovak labour market and human resource trends (for more details visit shop.spectator.sk)

- Employers were searching for people to fill some truly exceptional positions in 2019, including a specialist to treat the cloven hoofs of beef cattle, a marketing wizard (or witch), a chef or full time wizard in the kitchen, an intergalactic online temporary worker with 100-percent Czech proficiency, and an Iron-man or master of metal processing.

- Media-related jobs were a new favourite among jobseekers in 2019, a total of 37 people on average applying for one position in the field of journalism and media, according to the Profesia.sk website. Compared to 2018, it is an increase of 14 people. Administration and top management fields followed. Regional managers, general directors, copy editors and journalists were the most sought after positions in 2019. A total of 17 jobseekers on average applied for one position in 2019, about three applicants more than in 2017 and 2018.

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- Nine out of 10 Slovaks never work from home, although home office is the sixth most sought after benefit and third most searched for non-financial benefit after flexible working hours and extra holiday. At least partial home office is a lure for 44 percent of jobseekers, according to a poll carried out by Grafton Recruitment agency. It surveyed 875 respondents across 16 labour market sectors and all eight Slovakia’s regions.

- The coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected job offers, with employers mentioning the possibility of working from home more often. The home office benefit appeared in 719 job ads between April 1 and 19, 2020 the analysis of the Profesia.sk and Platy.sk websites suggests. This represents about 16 percent of the offers published on Profesia.sk.

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- Slovakia is one of “the most industrial” countries compared to the rest of the EU, an analysis by Poštová Banka showed. Almost one-third of Slovaks (31.7 percent) work in industry, the second highest number in the EU. Only the neighbouring Czech Republic has more employees in industry, amounting to 36.5 percent. Poland came third with 31.3 percent of employees working in industry.

Diversity in the workplace

- More than one-tenth of Slovaks have colleagues who openly admit they belong to the LGBTI community. Their acceptance significantly differs among people who have experience with the community and those who do not. The majority of such employees can be found in workplaces in Bratislava Region. In the research conducted by the Platy.sk website on 2,444 respondents, 17 percent said they have experience from around the capital. The lowest number of employees who meet with LGBTI colleagues at work is in Trenčín Region, at only 4 percent.

- Only one in five girls in Slovakia is considering the study of some IT specialisation, according to a recent survey carried out by the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO). It suggests that 21 percent of girls aged 14-17 years are considering studying informatics or a similar specialisation, while another 22 percent can imagine their future in IT. Only 3 percent of girls are certain about studying informatics.

- Slovakia ranked 63rd of 153 countries surveyed in the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 analysis by the World Economic Forum, scoring 0.718 points. It rose 20 positions compared with the 2019 report. The country scored 1st in the Educational Attainment and Health and Survival categories.

- In the 2019 Gender Equality Index issued by Eurostat, Slovakia scored 52.1 points out of 100, while the EU average was 67.4 points. Women in Slovakia still earn 21 percent less than men (compared with the EU average of 16 percent), while among couples with children, women earn 27 percent less than men. The gender gap in earnings is also much wider among people born outside Slovakia: foreign-born women earn 40 percent less than foreign-born men.

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- One in five central banks still has no women in senior positions. Out of 35 central banks that have no women at the top level, nine from the Asia Pacific and nine from the Middle East. Seven are from Europe, including two from the eurozone (Belgium and Slovakia), and five each are from Africa and Caribbean Latin America. This stems from the 2020 Gender Balance Index published by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum in partnership with Mazars and Barings.

- Slovak women earn on average one-fifth less than men, an analysis by Poštová Banka based on Eurostat data suggests. Only five other EU countries display more significant differences than Slovakia: the biggest gap is in Estonia, where women earn 25 percent less than men on average. Czech Republic ranks second, with a gap of 22 percent.

Working conditions

- Not money, but services, products of great quality and a well-known and strong brand are important for people applying for jobs in Slovakia, according to the Most Attractive Employer of 2019 poll, carried out by the Profesia company. A total of 36,068 people took part in the poll and chose winners in nine categories out of 189 nominated companies.

- Slovakia worsened the most out of 41 EU and OECD countries monitored in the 2020 Employment Flexibility Index. It scored 48.2 points, falling by nine positions (from 27th to 36th). In the country, the rates for the premiums for night work were doubled (the rate was set at 40 percent), as well as 100 percent premium for work during a rest day was imposed. Regulatory changes in Slovakia were introduced a few years back and are reflected in the Index 2020 due to the World Bank’s data collection methodology.

- The average basic salary changed more significantly in 2019 than a year before. It amounted to €1,101, up €66 compared to 2018, according to the Platy.sk website’s analysis. The increase in average salaries was the second highest in the past 10 years.

- Only 5 percent of Slovaks worked part-time in 2018, the least in the EU. At the same time, the number of Slovaks working part-time is decreasing. The reason is a less flexible Labour Code and good economic growth that enables companies to prefer full-time employment, according to the Slovenská Sporiteľňa analysis.

- One in three Slovaks changed jobs in the past 12 months, according to an analysis of the Profesia.sk website from November 2019. It surveyed more than 91,000 Slovaks who have published their CV on the portal. Translators, employees in gastronomy and tourism, and marketers changed their jobs most often.

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