The number of persons eligible for unemployment benefits in Slovakia continued to drop slightly in June on a monthly basis. Social security provider Sociálna Poisťovňa paid out unemployment assistance to 45,100 people in June which was a decrease by 1,600 from May, the SITA newswire reported.
In a year-on-year comparison, the number of beneficiaries decreased by 15,200. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits grew for nine months in a row until late September 2009. Eased terms for eligibility for unemployment benefits will take effect as of September 1 of this year, SITA noted.
The number of this year's higher education graduates who have failed to find jobs has risen to 23,219 from 19,075 a year earlier, and many more are expected to be jobless after a second round of graduations in the autumn.
“We expect that they will be joined by more university leavers during the summer and this September,” Poštová Banka analyst Eva Sadovská told the TASR newswire. In 2009, there was a 70-percent increase year-on-year (nearly 14,000) in the number of jobless graduates including September's. Employment growth, however, cannot be anticipated for the months ahead.
“A consistent, mild economic recovery is no guarantee for a rapid increase in new jobs," said Volksbank analyst Vladimír Vano. According to him, the growth of jobs depends on new foreign direct investment as well as potential for pick-up in the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises. They do not operate with a high amount of untapped capacity, so pick-up in their production could spike the recruitment of new workers, he said.
Sources: SITA, 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.
