Unemployment in Slovakia grew, albeit more slowly, in the third quarter of 2013. In absolute terms, the number of unemployed people increased by 10,700 y-o-y to 382,000, the Slovak Statistics Office (ŠÚ) announced on December 4.
The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage points y-o-y to 14.1 percent. Joblessness among men grew by 0.7 percentage points to 13.7 percent. Unemployment among women remained at 14.5 percent during the third quarter. When seasonal effects are taken into account, unemployment increased by 2,000 people compared to the second quarter of 2013, which is a 0.5 percentage point rise to 389,100, the TASR newswire quoted the ŚÚ.
Almost two-thirds (66.3 percent) of all the unemployed in Slovakia in the third quarter were people who had been jobless for more than a year. The figure in this category went up by 7 percent on an annual basis to reach 253,400 people. The number of those who had been unemployed for more than two years grew as well - by 13 percent, to make up 73.7 percent of a total of the long-term unemployed.
The biggest group of unemployed were between 25-34 years of age, with 116,400 of them (30.5 percent of all unemployed). The 50-54 year-old age group recorded the highest y-o-y increase of 12.7 percent among all age categories. Unemployment decreased by 6.4 percent only for those aged between 15 and 24 and by 2.8 percent for people aged between 55 and 59.
In terms of professions, the highest number of unemployed had worked in industry prior to being laid off (23.2 percent). Meanwhile, the highest relative growth in unemployment was seen in industry, health care and agriculture. Conversely, the number of unemployed decreased most in the financial and insurance sector.
The number of unemployed people increased in most Slovak regions, from Žilina region (up by 0.8 percent y-o-y) to Trnava (up 12.4 percent). Unemployment went down by 3.5 percent in Košice region. Košice and Prešov regions contributed most to Slovakia’s overall unemployment figures, with their rates reaching 18.9 percent and 18.8 percent, respectively. Between 1Q-3Q13, unemployment went up 385,800 people or by 0.4 percentage points to 14.2 percent.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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