Illustrative stock photo (source: SME)
Slovakia has achieved a historically low number of people without jobs.
The registered unemployment rate dropped to 5.03 percent in March 2013, down by 0.13 percentage points compared with the previous month. In annual terms, it fell by 0.52 percentage points, according to the data of the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (ÚPSVaR).
Thus, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since March 1993.
Unemployment dropped in all regions
The month-on-month decrease in registered unemployment was recorded in all Slovak regions in March 2019, most significantly the Prešov Region: by 0.26 percentage points.
Moreover, 36 districts reported an unemployment rate below 4 percent, according to ÚPSVaR.
The labour offices recorded altogether 137,962 people ready to immediately start jobs immediately at the end of March. The number dropped by 3,470 people m-o-m and by 15,892 people y-o-y.
Also, the total number of jobseekers amounted to 169,779 in the third month of 2019.
Unemployment below 5 percent?
At the end of March, there were 88,093 job vacancies in the labour offices. The number of vacancies increased by 1,961 m-o-m. The highest number of available jobs was in the Bratislava Region (24,103), the fewest jobs available were in Banská Bystrica Region (5,452).
At the same time, Labour Minister Ján Richter (Smer) expects unemployment to fall below 5 percent as early as next month, the TASR newswire reported.
