Slovenian employers report the most optimistic hiring plans in EMEA

Slovenian employers report the most optimistic hiring plans in EMEA
By bne IntelliNews March 15, 2017

Employers in Slovenia report the most optimistic hiring plans in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, and the third strongest across the globe, according to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey published on March 14.

During 2016, Slovenia’s registered unemployment rate increased in only two months – October and December – reaching 10.8% in the final month of the year. Despite the slight increases in December and October, the jobless rate is expected to decline over the coming years, backed by improved consumption and investment.

ManpowerGroup said that its outlook for Q2 stands at +22% and the hiring prospects are the strongest since the survey began more than six years ago, improving by 4pp in quarterly terms and by 14pp in annual terms.

According to the survey, 28% of the 621 Slovenian employers are forecasting an increase in staffing levels, 1% are anticipating a decrease and 68% are expecting no change.

Robert Vovk, director of Manpower Slovenia, noted “unprecedented employer confidence” in Slovenia for the third consecutive quarter. 

Globally this put second-quarter hiring confidence in Slovenia behind only Taiwan and Japan, and slightly ahead of India. Elsewhere in the CEE region, employers also had strong hiring intentions in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. 

“Despite the somehow cautious cultural background Slovenian employers anticipate strong hiring plans, confidence and solid labour market activity,” Vovk commented. 

“We are again facing talent gaps, but remain positive as we are seeing many companies adapting and embracing the digital transformation and other future trends, such as building workplaces with key future elements, such as promoting learnability of all employees. Overall, employer hiring plans are the strongest we have yet seen in terms of the national, regional, sectoral and company-sized outlooks.” 

Employers in all 10 industry sectors expect workforce gains during the upcoming quarter. Hiring intentions are the strongest since the survey began in Q1 2011 for all but four sectors. 

Manufacturing sector employers forecast the strongest labour market, reporting a robust net employment outlook of +33%. Elsewhere, construction sector employers anticipate an active labor market, reporting an outlook of +30%, while outlooks stand at +24% and +23% respectively in the finance, insurance, real estate and business services sector and the restaurants and hotels sector. Steady hiring activity is anticipated in both the electricity, gas and water supply sector and the transport, storage and communication sector, where employers report outlooks of +16%.

Meanwhile, the weakest hiring prospects are reported in the agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing sector and the public and social sector, with outlooks of +6% and +8% respectively.

The survey also revealed that large employers had the most optimistic hiring outlooks. According to the survey, compared to the previous quarter, large employers reported an improvement of 12pp, while the outlooks ranged from 4pp and to flat for small, medium and micro enterprises. Manpower’s year-on-year comparison revealed similar results, with an increase of 33pp for large employers.

Data

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