Ministry Upbeat Despite July Growth in Unemployment
lovenia's jobless total increased in July after shrinking for five months. The figure rose by 0.5% on June and by 9.6% year-on-year to 117,143, mainly on account of those whose fixed-term jobs ended, for some of them only for the summer.
But the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs says that the jobless total is by 7,000 lower than the February figure and that more than 40,000 people got a job in the first seven months of the year as compared to 35,000 in the same period last year.
"The ministry is not creating jobs itself, but we believe that we have been successfully decreasing unemployment and effectively responding to the demand on the labour market through our measures," State Secretary Dejan Levanič said in a press release.
He pointed to measures aimed at containing youth unemployment, including a special mentorship scheme and a suspension of social contributions paid by employers for those who employ young people.
A total of 23,882 unemployed have been involved in active employment policy measures this year, a 94.6% increase on the same period a year ago. The measures contributed to between 16,000 and 17,000 unemployed getting a job this year.
Levanič says that EU funding has been important in the implementation of the measures. More than a half of the funding planned for the year from the European Social Fund has been paid out from the national budget, which means all available funds will be used.
Subsidies for full-time employment of persons who are disadvantaged on the labour market have been approved for 2,315 job offerings and another 114 are being processed. In the first seven months of the year, 2,343 people found a job in this way.
The Employment Service has also selected 366 job offerings by employers in a scheme that gives incentives for the employment of people aged 50 and more, with 71 offerings still pending. By the end of July 123 people have been included in the scheme.
Subsidies for self-employment have been granted to 2,040 people this year, while 5,652 are still on agreements that bind them to stay self-employed for two years.
A further 4,335 unemployed were included in community work in the first seven months of the year. The Employment Service received EUR 30.9m for this scheme.
The Employment Service expects the number of people out of a job to increase in the coming months, as those who have completed education hit the job market in autumn, as well as a result of redundancies and companies going bankrupt.
But some will nevertheless find new jobs, also through active employment policy measures, so that the Employment Service projects the jobless total to rise to between 124,000 and 125,000 at the end of the year.