Vývoj zamestnanosti a nezamestnanosti v Slovenskej republike
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Summary/Abstract: The problem of a considerable decline in employment and associated abrupt increase of unemployment is typical for the transformation process in the Central and Eastern Europe transitive economies. In the Slovak Republic in addition, the outlasting high rate of unemployment acquired a character of a central economic and political problem. It is because of its overall and rigid absolute quantitative level, and also due to its sub-stantial structural-and-allocation and regional disparities that categorically decreased and have further been decreasing the efficiency of implemented labour market policy tool, as well as the traditional income policy. The rate of the economic activity of the SR population declined from 63.5 % in 1990 down to the level of 59.4 % in 1999. This decline was, from the demography point of view, caused by a faster growth of the population in their production and post-production age. In this consideration, the growth of population in their production age by 305.4 thousand persons, was the most important factor of the labour supply devel-opment in the period of 1990–1998. Of that, the increase of the population in the age groups of 15–19 years old and 20–24 years old represented 129.2 thousand persons can explain the 42.3 % total increase of the population in the productive age for the exam-ined period. The transition economy of the SR was not able significantly absorb the about stated increase of persons in their productive age, that were practically directly and fully transformed into the increase of a potential labour supply. This development together with a considerable reduction of the over-employment, predominantly found in the processing industry and in agriculture, originated and subsequently for a long-term conserved the serious conflict between the demand and supply on the labour market, while the high rate of unemployment is apparent on the macro-level. Partial structural factors on the side of labour supply, e. g. the decline of the above-average pre-transformation level of the economic activity of women, the decline in the employment of persons in their post-production age, but also more visible dynamism in the number of the SR citizens working abroad, could partially ease the pressure against the labour market. However, their influen-ce has currently been exhausted and from the macro-economic point of view is negligible. Attempts to increase the level of flexibility on the labour market, growing number of smaller companies and elimination of the so called gray employment is not workable under the present economic policy, that except for other instances, is due to the obsolete economic structure.A positive development trend in the employment in the SR economy was recorded in 1995–1996. Years that followed were marked with a decline in employment as it was evident especially at the end of 1999 when 80 thousand persons in y/y comparison fell off the labour market.

• Details
• Contents