EURES, the European Job Mobility Portal, which also operates as part of Employment Service, provided information about jobs abroad to 14,397 Slovenian job seekers in 2011. The figure for 2010 was 8,362, while 7,561 have turned to EURES in the first six months of this year.

The opening up of the labour market in Austria and Germany has resulted in increased interest for jobs there, especially in the regions bordering on Austria.

This has helped mitigate unemployment issues, especially in Štajersko (NE), Pomurje (NE) and Koroško (N), representatives of the Employment Office have told the STA.

The structure of Slovenian jobs seekers who are ready to work abroad has also changed slightly with the crisis, as the young and highly educated have been joined by older and less qualified workers.

The EURES portal, which presently advertises more than 1.2m open posts, shows IT experts, hospitality workers, mechanical engineers, financial experts and medicinal staff to be among the most wanted on the labour market.

The situation is similar in Slovenia, where unemployment is the highest in the Pomurje area (NE), at 17%, followed by Zasavje (SE), where is was at 14.5% in May. The central region of Gorenjsko is doing best at 8.5%.

Standing out among the unemployed in Slovenia are those who used to be active in manufacturing, retail, cleaning, cargo transport as well as construction, among other things.