Key labour market outcomes in Slovenia: Tackling some long-standing issues

Before the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008/2009, Slovenia experienced a period of considerable and stable economic growth, including a large increase in employment. However, the crisis hit Slovenia hard, resulting in a large drop in employment and record levels of unemployment, often the result of jobs wiped out by firms closing or down-sizing. Only in 2014 did the situation slowly start to improve. Nevertheless, levels of long-term unemployment remain high and there is a considerable risk for some of the cyclical unemployment to translate into a structural one. In the context of its recent but still modest recovery, Slovenia is trying to rectify a number of the structural labour market weaknesses and address the weak employment situation especially of low-skilled and older workers who have very low labour market attachment by international standards.