The unemployment rate in Slovakia has decreased to 8.78 percent, chiefly due to active measures employed by the Government to support the labour market, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) told a news conference in Bratislava on Tuesday. "We've managed to cross another threshold, and here is a result that pleases me very much, as I expected a development like this to come only in the next few months or even in 2018," stated Fico. Meanwhile, Fico said that the Government in January promised to create 100,000 new jobs and to bring the unemployment rate below 10 percent. "We are thus practically meeting an originally four-year plan as early as in 2016. The unemployment rate amounted to 8.78 percent in November. If we manage to maintain this pace, we might even exceed the all-time unemployment rate low seen in 2007-08 when it ranged between 7-8 percent. Active measures on the labour market will be instrumental in this," said Fico.
