Slovakia's unemployment rate inched down to 12.78% in June 2014 from 12.80% the month before, data from the Centre for Labour, Social Affairs and Family showed. In June 2013, the jobless rate stood at 14.25%.

The number of unemployed Slovaks ready to take up a job immediately rose to 345,013 in June from 344,487 in the previous month.

IntelliNews comment: Slovakia's jobless rate has been on a steady downward trend for the last 15 months but it is still one of the highest in the European Union. We expect Slovakia’s economic growth, which is seen strengthening this year and in 2015, to support the creation of new jobs and translate into a fall in the jobless rate. Moreover, the government in Bratislava has planned a series of measures to boost employment in the country such as financial incentives for employers who hire people who have been without a job for more than a year or jobless people over 50 years and disabled people. High jobless rates have troubled the nation of 5.4 million since the global economic crisis hit its export-driven economy, fuelled by auto and electronics production, at the end of 2008. Before that, unemployment hit a record low of 7.36% in August 2008.