IFP: Disposable Unemployment Rate Remaining at 5% for Three Quarters of Year

Bratislava, October 21 (TASR) - The disposable unemployment rate kept at about 5 percent for the first three quarters of this year, with a shortage of labour being felt chiefly in the west of Slovakia, Financial Policy Institute (IFP) analyst Monika Pecsyova said on Monday. The number of vacancies is approaching the pre-crisis maximum. Slovakia also posted a new record in employing foreigners, with more than 111,000 foreign workers working in Slovak companies at the moment, she said. "The disposable unemployment rate in Slovakia stagnated at 5 percent in Slovakia in September. The reason for the drop in the number of job seekers ready to take up a job immediately was primarily a higher outflow into inactivity, probably due to early retirements. However, the overall unemployment rate remains unchanged for the eighth consecutive month," specified Pecsyova. According to Pecsyova, the city of Trencin and the town of Piestany (Trnava region) posted the lowest unemployment rate of less than 2.5 percent. Meanwhile, the districts of Rimavska Sobota, Revuca (both Banska Bystrica region), Roznava (Kosice region) and Kezmarok (Presov region) have almost twice the unemployment rate compared to the Slovak average. The analyst stated that there's a shortage of employees on the labour market. Although the number of job applicants currently exceeds the number of vacancies by a mere one third, regional differences are more significant. The biggest number of employees is missing in the districts of Bratislava and Malacky (Bratislava region), where there are almost four vacancies per one unemployed. Conversely, there are over 50 job seekers per one vacancy in the districts of Gelnica (Kosice region), Sabinov and Stropkov (both Presov region). ko/mcs