The lifting of restrictions and the intervention measures to preserve jobs have largely contributed to the reduction of unemployment, which also fell in June. Namely, in June, 71,094 people were registered as unemployed with the Employment Service, which is 5.4 percent less than a month earlier. In the last month, the professions that were hired most often are salespeople, secretaries, waiters and cleaners, which, according to the economist Igor Masten, is the result of the lifting of restrictive measures. However, low unemployment is also the result of government incentives. “Through its expansionary policy, the state stimulated the labour market, and employment was also influenced by measures that encouraged the spending of the population,” he added.
The unemployment rate has been falling since March and has also fallen in June. According to the Employment Service of Slovenia, there were 5.4 percent fewer people unemployed in June, compared to May, and 20.5 percent fewer unemployed than in June of last year. The number of available jobs is also increasing, but as unemployment rates fall across the country, employers are warning of a shortage of workers. “We have a low unemployment rate due to the lifting of the restrictive measures, the re-opening of the activities, and the expansionary policy of the state,” the economist Igor Masten explained the positive data in the labour market.
In June, 3,532 unemployed people registered at the Employment Service, which is 4.6 percent less than in May and 53.3 percent less than in June 2020. Among the newly registered, there were 315 first-time job seekers, 1,797 unemployed due to the expiration of temporary employment, 42 unemployed due to bankruptcies, and 553 redundancies, the Slovenian Press Agency wrote. There is a higher percentage of women than men among the unemployed. People over the age of 50 represent more than 39 percent of the unemployed, and more than half of the people registered remain long-term unemployed.
Compared to the previous month, the number of applications for first-time job seekers decreased by four percent, the number of registered people due to bankruptcies decreased by 4.5 percent, the number of redundancies decreased by 11.8 percent, and the number of redundant persons whose fixed-term employment relationship has ended decreased by 3.5 percent. Of the 7,586 unemployed who were deregistered from the register last month, 5,656 got employed or self-employed, which is 4.7 percent less than in May and 19.5 percent less than in June 2020.
After the lifting of restrictive measures, employment has strengthened
The professions that were hired most often are salespeople, secretaries, waiters, cleaners, servers and domestic helpers, and so on. They mostly got employed in offices, hotels and other establishments, as workers in simple manufacturing, kitchen helpers, commercial sales agents, drivers of passenger cars, taxis and light commercial vehicles, storekeepers and purchasing and sales officers, and cooks. “The lifting of restrictive measures and re-opening of activities has had a positive impact on the fall in unemployment,” Masten added.
In June, unemployment fell in all regional services of the Employment Service. It decreased the most in the regional service Koper (-11.5 percent), followed by the services in Kranj (-8.2 percent), Murska Sobota (-7.5 percent), Nova Gorica (-7.5 percent), Ptuj (- seven percent), Maribor (-4.9 percent), Velenje (-4.9 percent), Novo mesto (-4.8 percent), Sevnica (-4.5 percent), Celje (- four percent), Trbovlje (-3.8 percent) and Ljubljana (-3.4 percent). When asked whether unemployment will rise again in autumn, Masten said that this mainly depends on the course of the epidemic. “If the country goes back to tightening the measures due to the epidemic, we can expect a rise in unemployment again, but it is expected that the measures will not be as strict as they were last spring,” he added.
Compared to last June, unemployment fell the most in Velenje
Compared to June of last year, unemployment decreased more than at the national level in the following regional services: the regional service of Velenje (-31.4 percent), Kranj (-30 percent), Murska Sobota (-27.9 percent), Koper (-22.8 percent), Nova Gorica (-21.8 percent), Celje (-21.2 percent), and Ptuj (-20.9 percent). The decline in unemployment rates is the slowest in the Sevnica regional service (-14.1 percent). Employers, most of whom come from the fields of education, manufacturing, construction, various other business activities, health and social work, and catering, reported 16,195 job vacancies to the Employment Service in June, which is 23.4 percent more than in May and 54 percent more than in June 2020.
In the first half of the year, an average of 81,286 people were officially out of work, which is 3.2 percent less than in the same period last year. During this time, 30,968 unemployed people registered at the Employment Service, which is 42.9 percent less than last year. Most people applied because they lost their fixed-term jobs; namely, this happened in 17,027 cases. Another 2,324 first-time job seekers and 6,193 people who were made redundant or lost their jobs due to bankruptcies applied. On the other hand, 47,157 persons deregistered from the Employment Service, of which 36,461 did it due to employment, which is 17.6 percent more than in the comparable period last year. In this period, employers reported 71,870 job vacancies to the Employment Service, which is 35 percent more than in the same period last year.
Sara Rančigaj
