YOUTH unemployment in Slovakia is the second highest in the European Union. As many as 32.3 percent of Slovaks below the age of 24 are jobless, according to EU statistics.
The only country with more youth unemployment is Poland, where it is 39.5 percent, the Hospodárske noviny reported.
Average youth unemployment in the EU is 18.7 percent. Slovakia's neighbours, the Czech Republic and Hungary, registered rates of 21.1 percent 14.8 percent, respectively.
The main reasons for the high level of youth unemployment, according to experts, is the high birth rate between 1981 and 1984 and the failure of schools to react to the demands of the labour market, educating pupils in fields that have little practical use today.
To address the problem, the Education Ministry has shut down around 30 percent of the outdated educational programmes.
