Slovenian jobless up 3.2pc month on month in December

LJUBLJANA: The number of jobless people in Slovenia increased to 85,060 at the end of December, up 3.2 percent compared with the previous month but still 14.6 percent lower than a year ago, the national Employment Service said on Friday.

It said the main reason for the rise was the fact that many short-term contracts expired in December.

The unemployment rate will be published by the service in February. It reached 8.8 percent in October, the latest data available, when there were 82,993 unemployed.

The government expects the unemployment rate to fall to some 8.7 percent this year mainly on account of GDP growth which should reach 3.9 percent, boosted by a rise of exports and investments.