Slovakia has lowest employment rate for low- skilled workers in EU

Slovakia has the lowest employment rate among people with primary school education and those who've finished vocational schools without graduation. The head of Slovak Academy of Sciences' prognostic team Martina Lubyova stated that at an Academy's economic conference on Thursday. A major problem is that Slovakia is still unable to activate the aforementioned group of people to find jobs. Meanwhile, with Slovakia's economy recovering, it emerges that the country is lacking qualified workers. "Some structural measures will be needed", said Lubyova. According to her, government-sponsored 'social companies' at the moment could help to engage those who have qualifications that are not needed on the market, however state interventions certainly aren't preferable over the long term. Fortunately, if structural measures - mainly pertaining to education - are introduced, such direct state interventions won't be necessary anymore in the future, she said. Another problem for the labour market can be posed by the fact that the Roma ethnic minority, currently counting 400,000 people, is expected to increase soon to 700,000. Among the measures to tackle the challenge should be a boosted system of formal education at schools, as well as life-long education, added the SAV chief forecaster.