Ljubljana - Slovenia's joblessness saw a slight monthly increase in October, as a total of 66,654 people were registered as unemployed at the end of the month. The total number was up 0.8% compared to September and down 20.3% year-on-year, the Employment Service said on Thursday.

The Employment Service said such an increase was usually the case in October, as first-time job seekers get registered after completing their studies. Meanwhile, the total number of registered unemployed persons in October was 20.3% lower than in the same month last year.

In the first ten months of this year, 51,755 unemployed persons were registered anew, which is 37.8% fewer than in the same period in 2020. Meanwhile, a total of 72,384 were de-registered, 3.2% fewer than in the same period last year.

Last month, 6,892 people were newly registered as unemployed, an increase of 49.3% on a monthly basis and a decrease of 22.8% on an annual basis. Of the 6,360 unemployed who were de-registered, 4,090 were employed or self-employed, which is 28.3% fewer than in September and 36.4% fewer year-on-year.

The most frequent jobs and positions among the newly employed were secretaries, sales clerks, workers in simple manufacturing jobs, cleaners, sales clerks, pre-school teachers, warehousemen, drivers and kitchen staff.

The most vacancies were still available for workers in simple manufacturing and construction jobs, cleaners in offices, hotels and other establishments, and heavy lorry drivers.

Compared to the previous month, unemployment was down in the areas of Novo Mesto (-0.7%), Ljubljana (-0.3%) and Kranj (-0.1%), with the latter also recording a yearly drop in unemployment of almost 31%.

Meanwhile, the latest data on the registered unemployment rate are available for August, when unemployment stood at 7.1% - 0.2 percentage points lower than in July and two percentage points lower than in August 2020.