ALTHOUGH industrial production in Slovakia has been growing since the end of the 2008-09 economic crisis, companies based in the country have not yet hired as many employees as they earlier dismissed. This has resulted in Slovakia having the highest unemployment rate among the Visegrad Group (V4) countries, according to UniCredit Bank analyst, Dávid Dereník. However, it also has the highest labour productivity in the V4 – a group which also includes the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland – the TASR newswire reported.
“We produce more, but with a lower employment rate, so labour productivity has significantly increased,” Dereník said, as quoted by TASR, adding that the largest numbers of people were laid off in the textile and wood industries and in the production of electronics.
“When it comes to productivity, we produce up to 79 percent of what an average EU citizen does, but if our unemployment rate equalled that of Austria, our current productivity would not be enough to reach their living standards,” he added.
Luboš Sirota from the recruitment agency Trenkwalder said that the situation in unemployment does not look good.
“In comparison with global economies this evaluation seems very negative,” he said, as quoted by TASR.
Sirota said he believes that if the crisis affects the automobile industry, the impact on the economy and its unemployment rate will be damaging for Slovakia.
