The registered unemployment rate in Slovakia at the end of this April reached 9.64 percent. Unemployment was thus at its lowest level since January 2009 when the figure was 9.03 percent. According to Prime Minister Robert Fico, an unemployment rate below 10 percent is a great achievement; however, Slovakia is slowly getting to the level, which will be difficult to overcome.
According to an analysis carried out by Poštová banka, only eight percent of Slovaks fear losing their jobs in the next six months, which is the lowest figure throughout the EU. According to Bank analyst Dominika Ondrová, this result is due to positive developments on the labour market. "Even if they lose their jobs, every fourth Slovak [25 percent] assumes that it would be easy to find a similar job with a similar salary ... Czechs see it very similarly," added Ondrová, saying the EU average in this respect is 37 percent.
On the public broadcaster's RTVS Sunday talk show, Labour Minister Jan Richter said that Slovakia could create scope on the labour market for people from non-EU countries, for instance, in sectors where it doesn't have enough qualified workers. "However, it should be regulated and monitored," said Richter, as he first of all wants to guarantee jobs for Slovaks. The first four months of 2016 saw 115 job applications from non-EU countries, of which 96 people were given the job with 90 percent of them being doctors.
According to opposition liberal Freedom and Solidarity MP Jozef Mihál, the number of unemployed people could be decreased by improving the business environment and supporting small-scale enterprises. "This is a way to open up room for people with entrepreneurial talents," he emphasised. "They will employ themselves and subsequently also others."
