The growth seen in the Slovak economy should translate into new jobs being created and salary hikes, although the lack of labour force on the market will become more pronounced, according to predictions made by analysts for next year. The November unemployment rate in Slovakia fell to 8.78 percent. "The situation on the labour market is improving. On the other hand, it needs to be said that a high number of long-term unemployment remains. Therefore, it's important to help the long-term unemployed to maintain or even recreate working habits and skills so that they can be hired once a suitable job offer comes along," said Slovenska Sporitelna analyst Katarina Muchova. According to McRoy Group consulting agency, the market will continue to suffer from a shortage of qualified labour, and companies will seek employees abroad. The same opinion is held by analysts from the Slovak central bank (NBS). "In the past year the number of vacancies has remained at record levels," they claimed, adding that employers reported growing difficulties with filling vacancies. "This indicates that actual employment growth might slow down in the future. Employment of foreigners has been growing this year at a pace of almost 1,000 individuals per month, which, however, still isn't adequate to cover overall employment needs in Slovakia," said the Central Bank's analysts.
New jobs are likely to be created particularly in industrial manufacturing, automobile production and engineering. Dynamic growth is expected by McRoy Group also in transport and logistics, with strong demand for IT specialists to continue. Employers will seek to fill vacancies most keenly when it comes to production operators, CNC programmers, quality controllers, welders, forklift truck drivers, warehousemen and metal workers. In terms of regions, the highest level of demand is expected in western Slovakia, particularly in and around Bratislava, Trnava, Trencin and Nitra. Similarly strong hiring demand is predicted for Kosice.
