Career and HR, page 22
Employment news from Slovakia
Institutions and organisations of employees and employers in Slovakia
Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR)
Part-time jobs unpopular in Slovakia
WITHIN the European Union Slovakia has one of the lowest rates of people working part-time.
Ever more Slovaks return - some with new skills
THE ADMISSION of Slovakia into the European Union a few years ago opened doors for Slovaks eager to work abroad either to earn better salaries than at home or to gain new job skills. The Czech Republic has traditionally been a popular working destination for Slovaks because there is no language barrier but other favourite destinations have been Great Britain and Ireland. But the global economic crisis has brought many Slovaks home and September figures show that migration back to Slovakia is continuing at a high pace.
Searching for talent
The global economic decline has changed the job market for middle and top managers as well as for executive search firms – pushing them to look for new ways to meet the needs of their clients. Some middle, or even top, managers have found themselves accepting job offers which they never would have considered in the past. The threat of unemployment has increased the loyalty of employees and executive search firms have needed to adopt their own cost-saving measures and to offer new types of services.
Cabinet raises minimum wage by 4.1%
THE MINIMUM monthly wage in Slovakia will increase by 4.1 percent at the beginning of next year, to €307.70.
Facts and figures about the Slovak labour market
Economically active population (2nd quarter 2008): 2,657,600
Job portals in Slovakia
www.profesia.sk
Job fairs in Slovakia
Job & Internship Fair in Košice, organised by the AmericanChamber of Commercewww.amcham.sk
INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS IN SLOVAKIA
Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR)www.employment.gov.skMinister: Viera Tomanová
Crisis makes the labour market more flexible
IN MARCH Slovakia’s jobless rate exceeded the two-digit limit, rising to 10.33 percent, a level which it had not reached for more than two years. Analysts and HR experts label the global economic downturn hitting Slovakia’s small and open economy as the main guilty party and say the outlook is not very rosy either. But as every cloud has a silver lining, HR experts find some positives even in the current situation. They list among them more realistic expectations on the part of employees and a bigger ‘supply’ in the available labour force as well as a chance for some companies to enhance their personnel after a period without enough labour.
T-Mobile named best employer
THE NUMBER two in the Slovak phone mobile market, T-Mobile Slovensko, was awarded first prize as the best employer in Slovakia in the category of large companies. Results of the study ‘Hewitt Associates Best Employers Slovakia 2009’ were announced on April 21, the TASR newswire wrote.
Getting back to work
AN INCREASING unemployment rate is not the only problem in Slovakia’s labour market. Along with low geographical mobility and insufficient life-long education, Slovakia suffers from long-term unemployment, when people remain without a job for months or even years and begin to lose their working habits. Some of these unemployed have lost their motivation to work and companies are not often prone to seek out such people as their working behaviour is unpredictable or unknown. Now, with the impacts of the global economic downturn making Slovak employers more cautious, it is even more difficult for the long-term unemployed to find work.
Global economic downturn influences job management skills
MANY companies in Slovakia are seeing the impacts of the economic downtown to a lesser or greater degree. While one year ago firms tried to improve their competitive position towards potential employees by various benefits and motivators, now the situation has been reversing. For many companies orders have been decreasing, along with profit, and the companies’ need to keep the same number of employees has also declined. Therefore, they now search for and identify possibilities of where to save money. They are implementing various ways to reduce costs, often in a form of reduced benefits, cutting or completely stopping trainings and staff development programs. Many companies have already started selective layoffs but also, in some cases, mass layoffs.
Slovak managers are ranked highly by international survey
LACK of focus on customer needs and inefficiently-run businesses are among the biggest problems for doing good business in central and eastern Europe (CEE). On the other hand, Slovak managers have been found to be hard working and ambitious and the business environment is dynamic. Women managers are outperforming male managers. These are a few of the major findings from research conducted in six EU member countries by Target International Executive Search Group, together with Henley Business School.
Facts an figures about Slovak labour market
Economically active population (2nd quarter 2008): 2,657,600
Job portals in Slovakia
www.profesia.skwww.cvonline.skwww.topjobs.skwww.job.skwww.jobpilot.skwww.jobagent.skwww.aujob.sk
Belgium and Denmark open markets
BELGIUM and Denmark will fully open their labour markets to citizens of Slovakia and nine other central and eastern EU countries beginning May 1. After this, only Germany and Austria within the EU will require Slovak workers to have work permits, the Sme daily wrote.
IT Valley links firms, schools and local governments
KOŠICE has become a home for a number of branches of top IT companies such as Microsoft, Siemens and Cisco Systems which have opened a number of workplaces in the local area, with further expansion planned. To tap into the local IT potential these companies and others have joined with local and regional governments and universities to create an association called IT Valley. Within the association’s program of activities the IT companies are participating in the development of study programmes at local schools, the Hospodárske Noviny (HN) financial daily wrote.
INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS OPERATING IN EDUCATION SECTOR
Ministry of Education - www.minedu.skMinister: Ján Mikolaj
Forget law or teaching, IT experts are now ‘in’
EMPLOYERS do not want lawyers any more. The most wanted professional is the IT expert. This is the conclusion from the latest study by the Academic Rating and Ranking Agency and the internet job portal profesia.sk, wrote the Hospodárske Noviny (HN) financial daily in mid-April. The study evaluated the level of interest by companies in university graduates who had put their CVs on this job portal.
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