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Unemployment Rose to Nearly 13 percent in January
Thursday 18 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 18 (TASR) - The unemployment rate in Slovakia went up by 0.23 percentage points month-on-month to reach 12.89 percent in January, the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre (UPSVaR) announced on Thursday.
According to UPSVar, the rise was substantially lower than the one recorded between December 2008 and January 2009, when the rate went up by 0.64 percentage points. "This rise in the month of January (2010) is one of the lowest in the last ten years," said the Centre's general director Jan Sihelsky.
He also stressed that the situation on the Slovak labour market is better than in surrounding countries, such as the Czech Republic, which has seen its unemployment rate go up at a more rapid pace.
"Pressure on the labour market on the back of the financial and economic crisis, which is partly reflected in an increase in the unemployment rate, is no longer as strong," said Sihelsky.
The rate dropped in regions with the highest number of jobless, namely Kosice and Presov regions. Thirty-one out of a total of 79 districts recorded a fall in unemployment.
The total number of job seekers in January stood at 391,499, up by 11,946 individuals. On an annual basis, the number soared by 122,034.
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