THE UNEMPLOYMENT rate in Slovakia fell slightly month-on-month in October by 0.05 percent to 12.4 percent, according to data from the Statistics Office reported by the SITA newswire.
Unemployment was still 4.89 percentage points higher than in the same month of 2008.
By the end of October Labour Offices recorded over 328,000 jobless people able to take up work immediately.
“Even though the numbers are slightly positive, we should look at them soberly, but definitely not pessimistically,” said Ján Sihelský, the general director of the Labour, Social Affairs and Family Centre, as quoted by SITA. He sees the labour market as having stabilised in the last three months.
Last month 19,800 people left the unemployment rolls and found a job. The long-term unemployed – those who have been recorded as unemployed for 12 months and more – represent some 35 percent of the total number.
Banská Bystrica remains the region with the highest unemployment rate, at 18.96 percent, and Bratislava continues to be the least affected, with unemployment at 4.39 percent, SITA wrote.
