Slovakia's unemployment rate rose to 16.33% in January from 15.6% the month before, the National Labour Office said on February 19. The Labour office added that the total percentage of unemployed, including those who were not immediately available for work, was 17.15%.
The absolute number of unemployed persons increased by 28,379 in a month to 456,588. The eastern district of Rimavská Sobota continued to report the largest number of unemployed (33.54%), followed by Revuca (32.83%) and Veľký Krtíš (30.51%) districts.
As usual, Bratislava IV, III and II districts posted the lowest unemployment rates of between 3.12 and 4.17%.
Women make up 45.3% of the absolute number of jobless, while handicapped people account for 5.4%.
The number of job seekers living on unemployment benefits increased 24,445 people to 144,376 in January. For every free job, there were 39 registered jobless people. Vacant positions totaled 11,167 in January, up 61 jobs from December.
