Interview: Mr Jose Glaser, General Director of the PES in Slovenia

1. What is the current situation within the employment field in Slovenia at the moment?

The current employment situation in Slovenia is favourable. The positive trends we are currently enjoying are a consequence of the continuation of the economic growth rate from 1999, when it was 4.9%, of the new Employment and Unemployment Insurance Act which provides better definitions of the status of unemployed persons, of requirements the unemployed must fulfil in order to preserve this status and of the effects of active employment policy measures.

According to economic results Slovenia is one of the most successful transition economies. It has emerged from economic crisis in a comparatively short period. Following the post-independence economic crisis during the transition from 1980s into 1990s, the GDP started a new growth cycle in 1993 with the initiative on intensive restructuring of production and search for new markets to replace those which had been lost.

Despite the increase in the demand for labour, until 1996, due to the desire for greater productivity, economic growth failed to produce a corresponding growth in employment and the unemployment rate remained relatively high throughout the period. In 1999, a growth of 1.8% in active population was recorded for the first time, which continued into 2000. At the same time a 5.7% average annual fall in the number of registered jobless (unemployed people registered with offices of the Employment Service of Slovenia) was recorded. The trend of falling unemployment continues this year. According to the May figures, there were 104,777 unemployed or 12.7% less than the year before. That the unemployment rate is falling was also confirmed by the data collected by the Labour Force Survey according to which in the first quarter of the year the survey-based unemployment rate amounted to 7.5%, or 1.6 percentage points less than in 1993 when it was at its highest. Despite the turn around in the unemployment trend it must not be overlooked that the structural composition of jobless people is deteriorating, especially for those who are seeking employment through the ESS (consisting mainly of people who lost jobs in the process of restructuring the economy) while on the other hand, the expectations of the market from candidates for jobs are growing higher with regard to the required qualifications and work experience as well as additional skills and personal characteristics. As the result, the groups which were hardest hit by unemployment were those of people over 50, people with inadequate or inappropriate qualifications for the job and those classified as hard to employ due to medical, family or other reasons.

2. Which are the challenges for the Public Employment Service in the nearest future?

One of the key challenges for the ESS will most certainly be to reduce the size of structural unemployment, in particular of the longterm unemployed and older people, since structural discrepancies between the supply and demand on the labour market are huge. The main emphasis of the ESS’s work in the future will be on the following:

• improving cooperation with employers;
• simplification and rationalisation of the ESS’s own work;
• setting up quality standards in all areas of ESS operation;
• construction of a managerial information system that will facilitate better monitoring and supervision of the ESS’s work and will be of assistance in the adoption of managerial decisions;
• establishing links with private employment agencies and initiating the organisation of activities contracted by employers;
• better coordination of work sharing with institutions performing similar activities to the ESS (business promotion, training);
• introduction of new technologies into ESS operation (electronic job placement services and financial operation by the ESS).

3. How can you cope with these challenges?

In cooperation with the competent ministry the ESS devised and introduced a number of successful active employment policy measures (in particular, public works, education, various forms of subsidy for employers providing new jobs, and other). One of the most important new features was the programme subsidising employment of older and hard-to-employ categories of people and the programme returning young unemployed people into full-time education. Judging from experience, the ESS must base its work on actively engaging the unemployed in becoming employable and not on providing them with passive rights such as unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance.

Close collaboration with employers is of paramount importance. Since the ESS wants to further improve its working relations with employers, a special employment consultant has been trained at every sizeable office, while in smaller offices the heads of these offices were trained specifically for this job. A trial department for work with employers was set up at one of the regional offices where employers can obtain all the information and assistance they may require in one place.

This will be achieved by establishing uniform quality standards throughout the service. The book of recommendations, opinions and complaints, introduced in 1999, will be joined by other services (freephone services, legal advice, calculation of income thresholds for recipients of scholarships and similar) which are being developed by the ESS in order to achieve a more user-friendly environment and greater cooperation with all users of ESS services. The ESS conducts continual staff training. This year over half of its staff took a special professional examination (a license) which guarantees a certain level of quality of work in the ESS. This year the ESS will, within the PHARE programme and in cooperation with the British, Swedish and Irish employment services, carry out the benchmarking of its activities in the fields of organisation, job placement, introduction of self-service, internal monitoring of the ESS operation and staff supervision and use this positive experience to improve its organisational set-up and manner of operation.

4. What benefits can you have from your WAPES membership?

Its membership in the WAPES provides the ESS with the following:

• access to information on labour markets in different parts of the world;
• possibility to learn about the organisational structure, programmes of work and execution of employment policies in public employment services;
• active participation by the ESS’s professional staff at round tables, conferences and organisations organised by the WAPES;
• cooperation in the formulation and execution of joint policy and management of this international organisation;
• an easier and more efficient communication exchange with other international organisations and associations and experts on employment and labour markets;
• bilateral cooperation in various fields with other public employment services;
• exchange of opinions, experience and know-how;
• transfer of best practice into the ESS’s work;
• international promotion of the ESS;
• cooperation in strengthening of WAPES activities through the membership in the administrative board.