Slovak August jobless rate hitsrecord low

...showed on Tuesday, but the jobless statistics are expected to worsen temporarily in September.

The Labour Office said the jobless rate fell to 8.19 percent in August from 8.30 percent in July. The unemployment rate, calculated from people without a job but able to start working shortly, was 9.85 percent in August 2006.

"We have signals from labour offices that the unemployment rate could rise slightly in September due to inflow of graduates to the (job) market," Labour Office Director, Jan Sihelsky, told journalists.

"But we expect a decline in the following months because of investors' demand for workforce," Sihelsky said.

The Slovak jobless rate has fallen steadily from around 20 percent four year ago after the former centre-right government, which lost power in the 2006 election, cracked down abuses of the welfare system.

New foreign direct investment projects, such as car assembly plants by French PSA Peugeot Citroen and South Korea's Kia Motors, have also created new jobs and cut the unemployment rate.

Foreign investors, flocking to Slovakia due to its flat 19-percent tax rate and cheaper workforce than in the West or its central European neighbours, have also helped drive Slovak economic growth to 9.4 percent in the second quarter of 2007.