Labour market in Slovakia to benefit from economic growth in 2017

The growth in the Slovak economy will produce more jobs in 2017, several Slovak analysts said on Tuesday.

The November unemployment rate in Slovakia fell to 8.78 percent. Experts have expected that the unemployment rate would continue to decline in 2017, a trend likely to be bolstered by new jobs in a number of sectors.

"It needs to be said that a high number of long-term unemployment remains. Therefore, it's important to help the long-term unemployed to maintain or even recreate working habits and skills so that they can be hired once a suitable job offer comes along," said Slovenska Sporitelna analyst Katarina Muchova.

According to McRoy Group consulting agency, the market will continue to suffer from a shortage of qualified labour, and companies will seek employees abroad. The same opinion is held by analysts from the Slovak central bank (NBS), adding that employers reported growing difficulties with filling vacancies.

"This indicates that actual employment growth might slow down in the future. Employment of foreigners has been growing this year at a pace of almost 1,000 individuals per month, which, however, still isn't adequate to cover overall employment needs in Slovakia," stressed the NBS analysts.

New jobs are likely to be created particularly in industrial manufacturing, automobile production and engineering. Dynamic growth is expected by McRoy Group also in transport and logistics, with strong demand for IT specialists to continue.

Employers will seek to fill vacancies most keenly when it comes to production operators, CNC programmers, quality controllers, welders, forklift truck drivers, warehousemen and metal workers. Enditem