Slovakia's unemployment rate fell to 19.1% in August, down 0.1 percentage points from its all-trime high the month before. The number of people reported unemployed dropped 2,304 to 508,651 people in August.
A significant drop in the number of newly jobless persons, by 16,170 to 27,632 people, was responsible for the positive trend, said the National Labour Office. The drop in newly jobless occured as the inflow of recent school graduates to the labor market tapered off.
The average duration of unemployment continued to grow, and ended August at 13.58 months, 0.34 months longer than in July. The number of long-term unemployed increased to 208,000 people, or 40.8% of all unemployed.
The number of job seekers living on unemployment benefits decreased 3,490 people in August to 117,967. In August there were 9,075 available jobs.
