The labour market in Slovakia began to see a revival in May, as the newest figures from the Slovak Statistics Office (ŠÚ) show employment in selected market segments rise month-on-month by 0.3 percent - representing some 4,000 jobs.
"Quite robust employment growth was recorded in May, which is good news after the adverse end of the past year and ostensible growth in the beginning of this year,” the Slovak Central Bank (NBS) analytic team said to the TASR newswire. “However, this presents grounds for cautious optimism only, as industry contributed to the growth to a minimum degree and the revival is attributed mostly to a significant employment rise in services".
Only the transport and IT sectors created new jobs. Based on this development, NBS predicts a slight growth in economic activity in next months, particularly in exports and production, fuelled by the rising employment. "Expectations regarding employment in Slovak firms have seen improvement, too, even though they still remain quite low," reads the analysis. In May, salaries on the whole went up by 1.1 percent month-on-month and 3.8 percent year-on-year.
Employment in industry in Slovakia fell 1.6 percent in annual terms in May, thus dropping for the fourteenth consecutive month, according to the SITA newswire. As data from the ŠÚ further shows, employment dropped the most in the construction sector, by 4.7 percent y-o-y. The most significant increase in the number of employees in May was in selected market services - when compared with May of last year it increased by 5.8 percent.
As for salaries, the average nominal monthly salary in May rose the fastest on an annual basis in IT activities (by 7.7 percent to €1,705), in the sale and repair of motor vehicles (by 7.3 percent to €795) and in industry (by 4.6 percent to €929). Notable year-on-year increases were also observed in the category of restaurants and pubs (by 3.1 percent to €370), in accommodation (by 3 percent to €579) and in retail (by 2.9 percent to €573). Meanwhile, a year-on-year fall was seen only in construction, where the average nominal monthly salary shrank by 0.8 percent to €894. The list of sectors that posted major annual increases in real salaries was also topped by information and communications activities (5.9 percent) and the sale and repairs of motor vehicles (5.5 percent). Next came industry (2.9 percent), restaurants and pubs (1.4 percent) and accommodation (1.3 percent).
(Source: TASR, SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
