Microeconomics

The Interior Ministry is working on drastic reforms in the public sector to improve efficiency, promote meritocracy, root out corruption and, ultimately serve the public more effectively.

Ljubljana – The Covid-19 epidemic has left a mark on the Slovenian labour market as a total of 87,283 persons were registered as unemployed at the Employment Service at the end of December 2020, which is up 15.9% year on year, and 3.7% more than at the end of November last year.

Ljubljana – The provision allowing employers to unilaterally terminate workers once they have met formal conditions for retirement, passed within the latest stimulus package in parliament on Tuesday, continues to raise dust as trade unions label it inadmissible and clear abuse of crisis legislation. Employer representatives are meanwhile welcoming it.

The government is offering tens of thousands of taxpayers and corporations the chance to return to the 100- or 120-installment debt repayment programs, after submitting an amendment in Parliament on Wednesday.

Turkey's retail sales volume with constant prices fell 0.8% year-on-year in June, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced on Aug. 14. 

"In the same month food, drinks and tobacco sales increased by 3.0%," TÜİK said.

Excluding automotive fuel, non-food sales dropped 2.8%, while automotive fuel sales slipped 0.9% over the same period.

The expiration of a $600 weekly jobless supplement at the end of July likely contributed to the decline in claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday. Reports from payroll scheduling and workforce management firms suggested a decline in employment in early August due to the spread of new COVID-19 cases across the United States.

Turkey's unemployment rate dropped to 13.2% in March, down 0.9 percentage point compared to the same month last year, the country's statistical authority announced on June 10.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said the number of unemployed persons age 15 and over slipped 573,000 year-on-year to 3.97 million in the month.

Property owners have serious concerns about the level of the compensation they will get for their revenues lost to the 40% rent cuts instructed by the government in favor of the companies and employees hurt by the pandemic. They also want to know how, precisely, they will be compensated.

The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on the labor market are now obvious, as data from the Manpower Organization (OAED) showed that the number of registered unemployed rose in April by 211,526 or 21.73% from the same month in 2019.

Greece remains the European country with the highest burden on households regarding home expenditure in proportional terms, with its rate at four times the European Union average.