Slovenia's labour market remains tight. With the lowest unemployment rate in more than thirty years, there were almost 24,000 job vacancies in the first quarter of the year, 2% more than in the quarter before though almost 2% less than a year ago, the latest statistics show.

While increased demand for new workers was reported across all sectors, the biggest staffing gaps were recorded in manufacturing, where companies reported almost 5,000 vacancies.

Increased demand was also recorded in finance and insurance where 580 jobs were available, or almost twice as many as in the last quarter of 2022.

The annual comparison, meanwhile, shows a slight decline in demand for new workers, as the number of job vacancies announced in the first quarter of 2023 was almost 2% lower than in the same quarter of 2022.

The largest decline in demand was in manufacturing, where nearly 1,000 fewer job vacancies were announced, while there was an increase in demand in commerce (500 more job vacancies).

Fewer than 49,000 people were registered as jobless at the end of April, down 3.4% on the month before and the lowest figure since 1990. Slovenia's survey unemployment rate meanwhile remained at 3.2% in March, the latest month for which data are available.