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Eurostat: Slovakia Has Worst Unemployment Rate in Europe
( 31 / July / 2007 )
Bratislava, July 31 (TASR-SLOVAKIA) - Slovakia in June had the highest (10.7 percent) unemployment rate in the European Union, with an overall jobless rate of 6.9 percent, the European Union statistics office Eurostat reported on Tuesday.
The Centre of Labour, Social Affairs and the Family (UPSVaR) said that their records of job seekers put the Slovak joblessness at 8.3 percent, which is used by the Centre as a key reference figure for unemployment. The variance with Eurostat may have been caused by different methodology, according to Danica Lehocka of the Centre, which uses the definition 'actively seeking work' for its calculation.
Also, Viliam Palenik of the Institute for Employment attributed part of the 2.4-percent difference from the Eurostat figures to the fact that many people fail to report to labour offices that they are out of work as they are either discouraged by red tape or do not find it worthwhile.
According to more Eurostat data, Poland has the EU's second worst unemployment rate (10.2 percent) followed by France on 8.6 percent. The Netherlands has the lowest unemployment of 3.3 percent ahead of Denmark on 3.9 percent and Cyprus on 3.9 percent.