Slovenian companies have been pointing to their difficulties in finding qualified new employees. Employers have been hiring foreigners to alleviate the shortage, but the manpower pool of the former Yugoslav republics is depleting as well. Employers criticize the length of procedures for hiring employees from third countries and they urge the authorities to take action by promoting economic migrations.
The organisations thus expect the government to speed up measures to tackle the issue and come up with a strategy for promoting economic migrations. According to the Employment Service’s data, in the past six months, almost 50% of employers were faced with the shortage, with the share standing at 70% among large companies. The deficiency is most pronounced in the restaurant business (69%), construction (62%), social and health care (62%) and manufacturing (56%).
Employers are thus trying to fill in the gaps by adopting measures such as overtime or temporary increased workload, recruiting through temping agencies, encouraging the young to find jobs more quickly, discussing post- retirement work with older employees and attracting foreign employees, the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) Samo Hribar Milič has told the STA.
The Slovenian Employers’ Association (ZDS) secretary general Jože Smole also said that recruiting foreign employees was one of the key ways to tackle this issue.
Source: STA