The biggest demand on the Slovak labor market this year was for production workers. Slovakia was also unable to respond flexibly to the lack of qualified labor. Energy-intensive companies should prepare for layoffs, on the contrary, the sector of shared services and information technology (IT) should pick up. Grafton staffing agency informed on Tuesday.
At the end of last year, 99% of companies in the Slovak Republic expected a stable situation or positive development, and a third of companies planned to increase wages. However, the war in Ukraine, the related energy crisis and high inflation caused real wages in the private sector to start to fall earlier. "The biggest impact this and next year will be felt by the so-called blue-collar workers, i.e. ordinary workers in production, trade and craftsmen, as well as other employees with a lower than average wage," explained Martin Malo, director of the personnel agency and Gi Group.
According to the agency's internal surveys, the most sought-after job positions this year included production, engineering and IT workers. These were primarily positions of qualified workers and specialists from the engineering, automotive and electrical engineering industries, but also less qualified employees.
The highest demand this year was for process engineers, maintenance technicians, toolmakers and production operators. Furthermore, there were qualified positions of electrical engineers, quality engineers and all specialized positions from the IT sector, such as PLC programmer or SAP specialist. Wages in these industries increased across positions and regions, on average it was 100 to 200 euros, but was highest among qualified specialists and experts - seniors, the company said. She added that employers were mainly looking for candidates with three to five years of experience.
The shortage of workers was covered up by employees with shorter experience or graduates, but also by foreign workers. "The salary expectations of the candidates this year were significantly higher than the salary currently offered," said the expert. Compared to last year, the personnel agency also noticed a higher pressure from applicants to provide non-financial benefits, which was caused not only by the lack of labor, but also by inflation. "In the second half of this year, Slovakia also encountered the historically lowest unemployment rate, which, however, will grow next year due to the energy crisis or, at best, stagnate due to the entry of new investors," predicted Malo. "Wage growth can be expected because the lack of candidates on the labor market gives employers no other option than to raise wages. However, in no case will the average wage increase match the rate of inflation. Rather, it will be individual, not general, growth," concluded Malo.
(TASR)
