The official unemployment rate in Slovakia in February reached 13.16 percent, its highest post-crisis figure, the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Office (UPSVaR) announced on Monday, March 21, as reported by the TASR newswire.
February's unemployment rate increased by 0.18 percentage points compared to January, TASR wrote. A total of 395,445 people were registered at labour offices in February, of which 350,969 were immediately available to begin work.
If those who were not immediately available to work had also been included, the unemployment rate would have hit 14.82 percent, a 0.14-percentage point increase month-on-month.
The average length of unemployment for persons registered at a labour office is 13.85 months, down 0.04 months month-on-month, but up 1.25 months year-on-year. At the end of February, job centres around Slovakia recorded 188,823 people who had been seeking jobs longer than a year, according to UPSVaR. Of those, roughly one-third (69,265) have been looking for jobs for more than three years with many of those in the southern district of Rimavská Sobota which has the highest unemployment rate in the country – now at 34.3 percent.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
