Ljubljana - The registered jobless total in Slovenia stood at 83,766 at the end of September, a 5% drop on August but a 20% increase compared to the registered unemployment figure in September 2019, show the Employment Service data released on Monday.

The number of newly registered persons was 6,510, up 23.4% on August and 13.2% higher year-on-year.

Among the newly registered persons, 2,716 had seen their fixed term contracts expire (up 19.8% on August), as many as 1,043 were first-time job seekers (up 158.8%), 40 lost their jobs because of receivership (down 34.4%) and 1,434 were long-term redundancies (down 4.6%).

Compared to September 2019, the number of newly registered redundant workers surged by 104.6%, the total of first time job seekers increased by 6.3%, the number of those hit by receivership stayed level, whereas the number of those with expired fixed term contracts decreased by 6.9%.

Of the 10,916 persons that were removed from the unemployment registry, up as many as 67.9% on August, jobs were found by 8,125, a 66.9% increase on August and 49.9% more year-on-year.

On average, the first nine months in 2020 saw 84,995 unemployed persons in the wake of Covid-19, up 14.2% compared to the same period in 2019.

A total of 74,222 entered the register of job seekers in the first nine months, up 44.5% compared to the same period in 2019. Almost half signed up because they had lost their fixed term jobs. The total of long-term redundancies and those who lost their jobs due to receivership was up by 186.9% year-on-year.

In the first nine months of 2020, 65,748 were removed from the registry, among them 50,473 due to finding a job, which is a 13.3% increase on the same period in 2019.

Employers advertised 13,181 vacancies with the service in September, 8% up compared to August but 4% down year-on-year. Most in demand were workers for basic jobs in manufacturing and construction, cleaners, servers as well as health and social care workers.

Vacancies advertised in the first nine months stood at 89,729, down 23.1% compared to the same period last year.

The last data on the registered unemployment rate in Slovenia is available for June, when it was down 0.1 percentage point over May to 9.2%. In February, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the rate was 7.9%.