A total of 6,119 persons registered anew with the Employment Service in May, which is 14.5% less than in April and down 11.7% year-on-year.

On the other hand, a total of 10,085 persons were deleted from the record, with 7,566 of them finding job or self-employment, which is 0.8% less than in April and 17% more than in May 2013.

In the first five months of the year, a total of 43,438 persons registered anew at the Employment Service, which is 5.6% less than in the same period last year.

A majority of them (23,144) registered because their fixed-term contracts expired, while 6,030 of them were first job-seekers and 8,550 were permanently redundant workers or workers from bankrupt companies.

In the January-May period, a total of 47,783 persons were deleted from the record, of which 35,874 found a new job, a 19.7% increase year-on-year.

However, Slovenia's biggest trade union confederation, the ZSSS, remains cautious as figures can be misleading. Experience has shown that figures can be the result of measures aimed at "cleaning the statistics", head of the ZSSS Dušan Semolič stressed.

If the positive trend continues, the ZSSS hopes it will be on the back of quality jobs and not such measures.

The Chamber of Craft Industries and Small Business (OZS) meanwhile said that while the number dropped, just shy of 120,000 was still a lot.

The OZS moreover pointed out that there was still a lack of employees with vocational training, such as electricians, bakers, butchers, cooks, mechanics and tailors.