Ljubljana - There were almost 25,900 job vacancies advertised in Slovenia in the second quarter of the year, the highest number since the national Statistics Office (SURS) started carrying out this survey in 2008. Most of the vacancies were available in the hospitality sector.

Vacancies in quarter two rose by 6% compared to the first quarter and by a quarter, or almost 5,100 vacancies, compared to the second quarter last year.

Demand for workers in this period was higher in all industries expect in mining, manufacturing and real estate business.

However, it was strongest in hospitality, where 1,100 more vacancies were available in quarter two than in the same April-June period last year.

The rate of job vacancies in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of the year was also the highest in hospitality, at 8.3%, up by 1.5 percentage points.

This trend was fuelled by more robust demand for new labour in hospitality, as almost 560 (or a quarter) of new jobs were advertised.

The number of occupied jobs across all sectors was meanwhile by 19,300 higher year-on-year, with SURS saying the figure has been growing steadily since the second quarter of 2014, with the exception of the second quarter of 2020, when the Covid epidemic broke out.

On the other hand, the number of occupied vacancies in hospitality did not grow in line with the demand, rising by only around 100.

In the past year, around 30,000 vacancies in hospitality were occupied. This figure was the highest, at 31,700, in the first quarter of 2020, just before the epidemic.