By: Vida Kocjan
According to Eurostat data, Slovenia has an unemployment rate of 4.9%, which is considerably lower than the average in the countries with euro (8.4%) and the EU (7.6%). This is also an information showing success of Slovenian measures to mitigate the effects of the epidemic and help the economy and the population.
This year’s crisis due to COVID-19 is harmful everywhere, not just Slovenia. We can compare it to the crisis from more than ten years ago, only the crisis this year started in healthcare, and in 2008 it started in finance. Both, however, have escalated into an economic crisis.
After 2008, unemployment was unbearably high in Slovenia. From more than 58 thousand job seekers in September 2008, the number rose to 120 thousand in a very short time. Even then the government under the leadership of Borut Pahor spent a lot of money on the economy and crisis mitigation. However, the aid at that time did not have the necessary effect. Slovenia lagged far behing EU countries.
This year, unemployment number increased by 14.5 percent compared to last September. At the end of November, 84,795 unemployed people were registered at the Emplyment Office. The number is high, but not comparable to the situation a decade ago. The reason for this is also the fact that the measures of the government led by Janez Janša greatly mitigated the serious social consequences. The government has thus helped save about 200,000 jobs, or about a quarter of all in the country.
In addition, the government is alleviating the social crisis also by helping the most vulnerable groups of the population, pensioners, students, large families, and the like. We have not yet experienced something like this in the country.
At the same time, Slovenia recorded a considerably smaller decline in economic growth than the EU average in the second quarter. Slovenia was 7th best in the EU (out of 27 members). We were well on our way to recovery. Then came the second wave (as everywhere) and a new slowdown in economic growth before the end of the year is predicted.
It is up to us, not the government, whether we will know hot to curb the epidemic or whether we will kneel down.
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In addition, the government is alleviating the social crisis also by helping the most vulnerable groups of the population, pensioners, students, large families, and the like. We have not yet experienced something like this in the country.
Vida Kocjan is a journalist of the magazine Demokracija.