Analyst: Unemployment Rate Dropping Mostly in Less-developed Regions

Bratislava, April 22 (TASR) - Unemployment rates continued to decline mainly in the economically poorer regions of Slovakia in March, whereas unemployment has been more or less unchanged for a long time in the western part of the country, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia analyst Lubomir Korsnak has declared in response to the released unemployment rate data on Tuesday. The unemployment rate is probably already close to its natural rate, and growing demand from employers is now more reflected in an increase in the number of available job vacancies rather than in further declines in the unemployment rate, added Korsnak. "The unemployment rate in the economically stronger regions of western and northwestern Slovakia, after taking seasonal effects (UniCredit Bank recalculations) into account, dropped by only a negligible 0.01 percentage point to 3.62 percent in March, while over the past year it has moved within a relatively narrow range of 3.57 percent to 3.67 percent," the analyst pointed out. In contrast, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the economically less-developed southern central and eastern regions of Slovakia fell by as much as 0.08 percentage points in March, according to UniCredit Bank's calculations. "Although it again reached a new record low, it still remained at a relatively high level of 7.59 percent, due in part to structural problems," added Korsnak. From a regional perspective, there is a shortage of workers especially in the west of the country. Bratislava and Trnava regions report more job vacancies than unemployed people. Nitra and Trencin regions report roughly the same number of vacancies and unemployed available to work. On average in Slovakia, there are 1.3 unemployed people available to work per job vacancy registered with labour offices, a similar ratio as in Zilina region (1.5). However, in Banska Bystrica region, there are 5.1 unemployed per vacancy, while in the Kosice region the figure is 6.4, and in Presov region it's as high as 10.7. In Korsnak's view, this imbalance in the labour market is unlikely to ease in the next few years. It is expected to be exacerbated by the aging population and the gradual decline in the economically active population. mf/df