Unemployment Growth Eases Off

Ljubljana, 03 March (STA) - Unemployment growth seems to be temporarily

tailing off in Slovenia, as the number of jobless registered with the

Slovenian Employment Service rose 0.2% to 99,784 in February.

This is the smallest monthly increase since October 2008, but it

nevertheless means that the unemployment total is 29.3% higher than a year

ago.

The Employment Service said Wednesday that it had registered

6,848 newly jobless in February, which is down 35.7% on the previous month

and 16% less than a year ago.

Of the newly unemployed, 805 were

first-time job seekers, 1,710 were made redundant or lost their job as a

result of a bankruptcy, and 2,776 were made jobless because their

fixed-term contracts ended.

The mass layoffs associated with the

economic crisis changed the overall structure of the unemployed: more men

than women are now jobless and the ranks of the unemployed aged 25-49

swelled.

Moreover, the average time of unemployment rose to one year

and nearly seven months, but this is still three months shorter than a year

ago.

Even though the number of jobless remained level, the Employment

Service says the figures on new job openings show no signs of

recovery.

Employers published 11,718 job openings, down 7.4% on the

previous month and nearly half the figure from a year ago.