Slovenia's joblessness fell to a new all-time low in March. The Employment Service registered 50,327 people as being out of work, 5.8% fewer than in February and 16.9% fewer than a year ago.

The unemployment register added 4,321 newly unemployed people in March, which is on a par with the figure a year ago but 1.6% fewer than in February.

411 of the newly unemployed were first-time job seekers, 1,888 saw their fixed-term job contracts expire, 24 lost their jobs due to bankruptcy and 748 were made redundant.

The most substantial decline was observed in the number of those who lost their job as a result of company failures. Their number was down by almost a third since February and by over half since March 2022.

Out of 7,398 unemployed who were struck from the unemployment register, 5,230 found a job or got self-employed. The latter figure represents a 14% increase on February but is 10% lower year-on-year.

Most of them found work as secretaries, salespersons, low-skilled manufacturing and construction workers, cleaners, drivers.

Employers reported a total of 16,494 vacancies in March, 18.7% more than in the month before but 3.8% fewer than in the same period last year.

Most of the employers looking for workers were active in manufacturing, construction, healthcare and social care and they were mostly looking to fill low-skill jobs.

The most recent data on the registered unemployment rate shows it stood at 5.6% in January, 0.2 percentage point up from December 2022 but 1.3 points down year-on-year.