Slovakia spends the most on unemployment benefits among V4 countries

In 2023, Slovakia's spending on social unemployment benefits amounted to 0.63 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which was the highest among the V4 countries. In 2020, it was 0.84 percent of GDP, similar to the Czech Republic. The EU average in 2023 reached 1.05 percent of GDP, and in 2020 it was 2.21 percent of GDP. This follows from the current economic overview of the Institute for Strategies and Analyses (ISA) based on Eurostat data.
 
"Unemployment benefits include regular contributions, such as unemployment benefits, and one-off contributions, such as severance pay and other compensation. These expenditures increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the state provided additional assistance. Unlike the remaining V4 countries and the EU average, Slovakia has still not returned to the pre-pandemic level," the institute said.

In 2022, one-off cash benefits in the Slovak Republic accounted for 48.5 percent of total unemployment expenditure, the third highest share in the EU. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, they accounted for roughly 30 percent of the total. Severance pay expenditure was at 29.6 percent. Severance pay is paid by the public and private sectors, the armed forces or is covered by guarantee insurance. In the public sector, severance pay accounted for 7.2 percent and in the private sector, 15 percent of total expenditure.

"Unemployment in Slovakia has fallen significantly since 2014, but in the long term it is the highest in the V4. In 2023 it reached 5.8 percent, the EU average was 6.1 percent," concluded the ISA.

Source: STVR