Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year once again the Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS) has prepared a Presentational Overview, a publication that makes available condensed information on the work of the ESS in 2007. We have been publishing this Overview since 1999, and we will work to ensure its publication in the future, since it has been very well received among professional and lay circles as well as among domestic and foreign readers. And for all those of you who require more extensive and more in-depth information, I should point out that this is published on the ESS website.

So what was new in 2007? Briefly I could mention that we strove to improve or strengthen cooperation with employers, who are our most important partners in the area of employment. The priority task of the ESS is to ensure the coverage of job vacancies for employers. Given the increased demand, it is vitally important that with each unemployed person who registers at the ESS, we make an employment plan as soon as possible, and this defines the individual’s career goals. This is indeed exceptionally important for the successful referral of unemployed persons to vacant positions. In 2007, on the basis of the overhauled doctrine of working with the unemployed and employers, we set the target of reducing the average time for producing the first employment plan by 10 days compared to the previous year, and in 2008 we are continuing this trend and are seeking to achieve a further reduction of this time by 5 days. To this end we developed a new group form of guidance and preparation of the individual employment plan.

Regarding the new features I must also mention that alongside individual guidance, the ESS has also developed several group forms of guidance to supplement individual guidance, since only long-term inclusion in intensive forms of combined assistance will ensure a change in views, behaviour patterns, and raise motivation, which is a precondition for inclusion in training or education that leads on to employment.

We also developed several new e-services, with which we wished to make ourselves even more accessible to the widest circle of ESS service users. These e-services undoubtedly present new possibilities for clients of the ESS and a higher quality of our services. With the new service of providing information to unemployed persons via SMS messages and e-mails, for instance, we have been able to inform a greater circle of potential candidates about job vacancies. This is also positive because in this way we can verify indirectly how willing unemployed persons are to accept vacancies, and it is also good for us since we can thus respond significantly faster to the needs of employers than is possible through the classic notifications or referrals by post.

Trends on the labour market were also favourable: for the sixth year in succession now, at the end of the year the ESS recorded a good deal less than 100,000 registered unemployed persons, with the end of 2007 showing even less than 70,000 or over 12 percent less than the previous year. These are favourable results, although of course we cannot simply put our feet up now, since we all know that behind each number is hidden a personal story, and the loss of a job generally leaves behind it pain, pressure and powerlessness. For this very reason, all staff at the ESS must make every effort to reduce this pressure as much as possible or soften it. Through high-quality referrals of unemployed persons to employers and by carrying out active employment policy measures, which are target-orientated, this can be achieved. The results in many cases will not be visible “overnight”, although work in this area is nevertheless very important, since in this way we can also activate disadvantaged persons and facilitate their social inclusion.

There are many challenges. I believe that through our joint efforts we will succeed in shifting things for the better. All this is with one sole aim: for the benefit and greatest possible satisfaction of ESS service users.

Marija Poglajen
Director-General

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