Slovak unemployment rate falls to 5.72 percent

The unemployment rate in Slovakia in February stood at 5.72 percent, down by 0.16 percentage points month-on-month and by 2.67 points year-on-year, said Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre (ÚPSVaR) general director Marian Valentovič at a press conference on Tuesday with Labour Ministry State Secretary Branislav Ondruš in attendance. The number of jobseekers immediately able to take up a job was 158,444 in February, an increase of 4,631 individuals month by month and a decrease of 70,221 year on year, said Valentovič. As for individual regions, all eight Slovak regions recorded cuts in their unemployment rates in February, with the Banská Bystrica and Žilina regions seeing the most significant drops. In terms of districts, the unemployment rate declined in 75 of them, while only four districts posted growth in unemployment.