Labour, Social Affairs and Family Centre: Unemployment Grew to 3.86% in July

Bratislava, 20 August (TASR) - Unemployment measured by the proportion of jobseekers available to start work increased by 0.08 percentage points (p.p.) month-on-month to 3.86 percent in July, but despite the increase in unemployment, the number of long-term unemployed people registered at labour offices for more than 12 months fell, the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre (UPSVaR) reported on Wednesday. "The total number of jobseekers registered with labour, social affairs and the family offices increased by 2,940 when compared to June to stand at 165,725. Such a development in unemployment is common in this period; the same trend was also seen in the previous two years," said the centre. The number of jobseekers who have been registered at the labour offices for more than 12 months has fallen for seven consecutive months to 61,477, down by 4,953 year-on-year. Ten years ago, the long-term unemployed accounted for more than 53 percent of the total number of people out of work, but in the past year their number has fallen below the 40-percent threshold. In July, the number of job vacancies in Slovakia was high at 107,033, the second-highest level in 25 years. The Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Ministry registered the highest number of vacancies in June this year - 107,044 in total. As far as the regions are concerned, the lowest unemployment rate was in Trnava region at 2.7 percent. Conversely, the highest unemployment rate was in Presov region, standing at 5.83 percent. am/df