At the beginning of the year, employment in the SR increased again, there were more employees in manufacturing and mostly students of secondary education

The number of employees increased year-on-year in 11 of the 18 monitored sectors of the economy. The development was mainly supported by the increase in number of employees in manufacturing sectors, mostly in industry. In services, the total employment did not almost record a year-on-year fluctuation. Employment increased in all regions of Slovakia.

According to the Labour Force Survey¹⁾, in the first quarter of 2024, employment increased year-on-year by 0.8%, which was the highest value in the last six quarters. The number of employees²⁾ in the SR exceeded 2,601,000 people. After seasonal adjustment, employment rose quarter-on-quarter by 0.2% (compared to the 4th quarter) to almost 2,625,000 employees.

The employment rate³⁾, which expresses the share of employees from the total population, increased year-on-year by 0.9 percentage points (p.p.) to 77.6%.

In general, in the 1st quarter of 2024, employment in 11 of the 18 monitored sectors of the economy increased year-on-year. The favourable development was mainly influenced by the growth in the manufacturing sectors, where the number of employees increased by 23,000 people. In industry, as the second largest employer in the Slovak economy, the number of employees increased by 12,000 people and in construction by 7,700 people.

The largest number of people, over 62% of all employees in the SR, continued to work in services, which at the beginning of 2024 represented almost 1,621,000 people. However, their number stagnated year-on-year. The most significant real progress of employment was recorded in accommodation and food beverage services, even among all monitored sectors, where the number of employees increased by 13.4 thousand people (an increase by 14.6%). The labour market also strengthened in art, entertainment and recreation by over 8,000 employees (an increase of 29.6%). However, after two years of increases, employees began to leave wholesale and retail trade, in the 1st quarter of 2024 there were 8.2 thousand fewer people than a year ago (a decrease of 2.5%). A similar number of employees also decreased in administrative service activities (a decrease of 15.5%).

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In terms of educational groups, the number of employees with full secondary education completed by the school leaving examination recorded the most increases by almost 56.7 thousand compared to the same period in 2023 (an increase of 6.5%) and accounted for more than a third of the total employment.

At the beginning of the year, according to the age category, the labour market recorded high year-on-year increases of 6.6% in the category of employees aged 50 to 54 (by almost 20,000 people) and in the category over 59 by 9.2% (more than 19,000 people). On the contrary, the number of employees of younger years primarily decreased.

In the 1st quarter of 2024, in regional terms, the number of employees increased year-on-year in all 8 regions of Slovakia. Only Bratislavský kraj recorded an increase in the number of employees over 1%, in the region with the highest share of employment, almost the number of employees increased year-on-year by 5,000 men and women. Košický kraj reached the level of 1% increase, in the other regions employment rose year-on-year even more moderately.

In addition to Bratislavský kraj, only Žilinský kraj recorded the highest employment rate with a value above the threshold of 80%. The most significant change was recorded in Trenčiansky kraj, where the employment rate rose year-on-year by 1 p. p. to 79.3% at the beginning of 2024. The lowest employment rate was in Prešovský kraj (71.4%).

In the first quarter of 2024, almost 118,000 Slovak citizens travelled⁴⁾ for work abroad, which was by 1% less than a year ago. They were mainly employed in construction, industry and health and social work activities. Most of them came from Prešovský kraj (more than 31,000 people), Banskobystrický kraj (more than 18,000 people), as well as Žilinský kraj (almost 18,000 people). The highest year-on-year increase in the number of people commuting to work abroad, outside the SR, was in Banskobystricky kraj by 51.9% (by over 6,000 people). On the contrary, in Nitriansky kraj, the most significant decrease in the number of people working abroad was recorded, with a year-on-year decrease of 58.6% (by almost 14,000 people).