BY 2010, CARMAKERS and their suppliers in Slovakia will need another 53,000 workers on top of the 55,000 people the sector employs already, according to the Slovak Automotive Industry Association.
Within four years, the Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot Citroën, and Kia carmakers will be producing a total of one million cars a year, making Slovakia, at 204 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, the largest per-capita producer of cars in the world, the Pravda daily wrote.
"The industry is growing sharply in Slovakia and is starting to suffer from a lack of qualified labour. The current shortage of automotive sector workers is around 16,000," said Jozef Uhrík, the vice-president of the Slovak Industrial Union.
Employers believe that the Slovak education system is not producing graduates that meet the current demands of the labour market. Uhrík believes that the carmakers, the ministries of economy and education, and Slovakia's municipalities should increase cooperation to address this situation.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
TheSlovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the informationpresented in its Flash News postings.
