Illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
The unemployment rate, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, keeps increasing in Slovakia while analysts expect the growth to reach its peak only in autumn.
“After a surprisingly strong increase in April, the growth of the jobless rate slowed down in May,” Ľubomír Koršňák, analyst with UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, wrote in his memo.
May’s registered unemployment, i.e. the rate of those job seekers able to take a job immediately, amounted to 7.2 percent or 219,159, up by 0.63 percentage points or 19,504 people month-on-month and by 2.32 p.p. or 64,000 people year-on-year, according to data published by the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre (ÚPSVR) on June 19.
“Compared to April, the sleepy labour market resumed, but only slightly,” said Koršňák, adding that May brought better numbers in inflow as well as outflow of job seekers from job offices compared with April.
All regions reported monthly growth in unemployment in May, when the jobless rate increased more dynamically in the poorer regions of eastern and southern Slovakia than in the better-off western Slovakia.
