Employment of foreigners

Pursuant to the Employment and Work of Foreigners Act (ZZDT) the ESS is competent for issuing all types of work permits and for keeping records of the employment and work of foreigners. In 2007 we recorded a significant 36 % increase in the issuing of work permits, with a total of 60,664 permits issued (in 2006 a total of 44,654 permits were issued). Alongside a reduction in the number of personal work permits issued to foreigners who have lived and worked for a long time in Slovenia and have obtained permanent residence permits, 2007 was characterised primarily by a considerable increase in the volume of employment permits, which had remained almost unchanged in previous years. The increased volume of employment permits is chiefly a consequence of greater demand for workers, primarily for workers in professions that are inadequately represented on the Slovenian labour market (construction, metalworking, transport and catering). Thus the volume of employment permits issued in comparison with the preceding period grew by 68 %, with a total of 38,210 employment permits being issued (of which 15,129 permits were issued without verification on the labour market). The past year also saw a considerable increase in the number of work permits issued, with a rise of 24 %, and a total of 14,565 permits issued, which was mainly a result of increased demand for seasonal workers in construction, where 8,593 permits were issued, or 45 % more than in 2006.

Despite the fact that expectations of a large influx of workers from the EU, especially from the new Member States, to work in Slovenia have not been borne out in recent years, the influx of workers from the EU, especially from Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, is by no means negligible. In 2007 the ESS, which is competent for recording the employment and work of workers from the EU, recorded a total of 5,596 registrations of workers from the EU, of which 2,843 were employment registrations, 459 were registrations of individual work and 2,295 were service registrations. The workers from the old Member States are predominantly experts and management personnel in mixed corporations, while the workers from new Member States for the most part perform activities similar to foreigners from third countries (work in construction, the metal industry and international transport).

Valid work permits at the end of December 2007