A college graduate with a resume ready updates his job portal profile yet again, where no suitable entry-level positions have appeared for weeks. Meanwhile, within a few hours, dozens of other candidates respond to a single job posting that happened to appear online. The Slovak labor market is facing a situation where companies report a labor shortage but are simultaneously reducing the number of open positions.
In the first nine months of this year, the number of job postings on the country’s leading recruitment portal, Profesia.sk, fell by 13%. At the same time, competition among job seekers has increased significantly: whereas previously an average of 28 people applied for each position, that number has now risen to 36 applicants.
Why Is It Getting Harder for Young Professionals and Recent Graduates to Break Into the Job Market?
It is entry-level candidates without work experience who have been hit the hardest. The share of job openings suitable for recent graduates has fallen from 36% in 2019—before the pandemic—to 27% today. Experts attribute this to simple business pragmatism: it’s easier for employers to delegate routine entry-level tasks to artificial intelligence or automated systems than to spend time and money training newcomers from scratch.
In addition, the situation is influenced by general economic uncertainty. Even experienced employees prefer not to take risks and hold on to their current jobs, even if they are not entirely satisfied with the working conditions or salary. As a result, internal staff turnover is slowing down, and far fewer new positions are being created. Another painful factor for job seekers is the corporate culture at some Slovak companies, where, after submitting a resume or attending an interview, a candidate may simply never receive a response or a rejection notice.
How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Job Requirements
The emergence and active implementation of artificial intelligence tools in companies’ daily operations do not mean a mass loss of jobs in Slovakia; however, the rules of the game in the Slovak labor market are changing fundamentally. The main challenge lies in the transformation of skills.
- Versatility. The ability to use modern digital tools and neural networks is becoming a mandatory requirement across a wide variety of industries, regardless of a company’s specific field.
- Critical thinking. Employers highlight gaps in the education system: young professionals often lack the ability to properly formulate work requests, analyze generated data, and critically evaluate results.
- Flexibility. Success in job interviews increasingly depends on the ability to quickly adapt to new technological processes and a willingness to engage in continuous self-learning.
