Unemployment increased after four years of quarterly declines, though indicators remained at historical lows
The number of people without work and the unemployment rate increased slightly year-on-year during the 2nd quarter of 2025, though both indicators remained at historical lows. There were 145 000 people without work and the unemployment rate was 5.3%. Unemployment indicators deteriorated in 5 out of SR 8 regions, but increases and decreases were only very moderate in almost all regions.
The number of the unemployed1) in Slovakia in the 2nd quarter of 2025 reached 144.5 thousand people, which represented a very slight year-on-year increase by 1.7 thousand people without work (by 1.2%). There was a year-on-year increase in the number of the unemployed after 15 quarters, when the number of unemployed decreased year-on-year at the quarterly level. This was confirmed by the latest statistics from the Labour Force Sample Survey (LFSS)2).
The current number of unemployed in the 2nd quarter was the second historically lowest since the beginning of 2021 (since the new methodology began to be applied3). The historically lowest number of unemployed was in the 2nd quarter of 2024 (seasonally unadjusted data). The total number of the unemployed compared to the previous 1st quarter (after seasonal adjustment) increased by 1.8% to 148.1 thousand people.
The reference unemployment rate4) reached 5.3%, which is at the level of historically low values. The unemployment rate, which expresses the share of the unemployed among the economically active population of the SR aged 15 to 74, has been maintained at values below 6% for the last two years.
The long-term unemployed continued to dominate the structure with a share of 62%, their number decreased slightly year-on-year to the current 90.1 thousand persons. However, the rate of decrease by 2.3% was slower than in the 1st quarter.
From the perspective of the sectoral classification of the last employer, the largest number of persons last worked in industry, trade, construction, but also in public administration. The most significant year-on-year change occurred among employees who last worked in the field of public administration and social security. Their number increased by almost 60% year-on-year to 7.2 thousand persons.
A significant share, almost a third, of the unemployed was still made up of persons who had never worked before. Despite the year-on-year decrease of more than 10%, this was still a large group of over 45 thousand persons, with more than half of them being young people under 34 years of age.
From a regional perspective, the highest numbers of unemployed people in the long term continued to be in Prešovský kraj (more than 41 thousand people), Košický kraj (almost 32 thousand people) and Banskobystrický kraj (23 thousand people). A negative trend, an annual increase in the number of people without work, was recorded in 5 out of 8 SR regions. The relatively most dynamic growth, by more than 5%, was recorded in Banskobystrický kraj (by 1.5 thousand people) and also in Nitriansky kraj (by more than 0.5 thousand people). On the contrary, the most significant decrease by 3.2% (by less than 0.5 thousand) was recorded in Bratislavský kraj.
The unemployment rate in the regions ranged from 2.1% in Bratislavský kraj to 10.6% in Prešovský kraj. Out of 8 regions, 5 had a very low unemployment rate of less than 4%, namely Bratislavský, Trenčiansky, Žilinský, Trnavský and Nitriansky kraj. In terms of development, there was most significant deterioration in the situation in the year-on-year comparison in Banskobystrický kraj, where the unemployment rate increased by 0.5 p. p. to 7.3%.
In total, for the first half of 2025, unemployment indicators in the Slovak Republic improved year-on-year, the number of people without work and the unemployment rate decreased. In total, 145.5 thousand people were unemployed in Slovakia, this number decreased by 3.2 thousand people (by 2.2%). The unemployment rate in the Slovak Republic decreased to 5.3%.
In the structure of the unemployed people in Slovakia, the majority, 63%, were long-term unemployed (people unemployed for 12 months or more). However, the positive trend of decreasing the number of people in this category continued, with a year-on-year decrease by 5.6 thousand people.
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