Slovenia's joblessness persists at historically low levels, with fresh data from the Employment Service putting the figure at 43,369 at the end of June, the third month in a row the total hit a new low.

The lowest since Slovenia became independent 33 years ago, the registered jobless total fell by 1.6% on the month before, dropping by 6.1% year-on-year.

A total of 3,637 people freshly out of a job registered with the Employment Service in June, 5.8% fewer than in May and 9.3% fewer than in June a year ago.

Most, 1,574, saw their fixed-term job contracts expire, 623 were made redundant, 25 lost their jobs after their company went into receivership and 293 were first-time job seekers.

Most of the newly jobless had been employed in manufacturing, retail, vehicle maintenance and repairs, and construction.

Meanwhile, 2,716 of the unemployed found a job, 11.7% fewer than in May and 13.4% fewer year-on-year.

Most of those who found a job included secretaries, shop assistants, simple manufacturing workers and cleaners.

Employers reported 12,940 vacancies in June, a decrease of 0.8% from May and down 18.1% year-on-year.

They were mostly looking for primary school and kindergarten teachers, cleaners, hospital food service workers and kitchen staff at hotels and similar institutions and simple manufacturing workers.

In the first six months of this year, the average monthly unemployment total was 46,813, down 6.7% from the same period last year.

In this period employers reported 80,113 vacancies, a year-on-year decrease of 9%.

The most recent available data puts the registered unemployment rate in April at 4.6%, down 0.4 percentage points year-on-year.

The survey unemployment rate stood at 3.2% in May, down half a percentage point year-on-year, according to the Statistics Office.