RTV Slovenia, the national broadcaster, reports that Rogaška Crystal, Fraport (Ljubljana International Airport) and Hoedlmayr Logistics (based in Logatec) have all announced layoffs which will occur in the near future.
Rogaška Crystal (Steklarna Rogaška), which was facing a lack of orders even before the crisis and mostly relies on exports to the United States, where the industry has been hit severely by the recent events of social unrest, first announced that 200 workers would lose their jobs, but managed to reduce the number to 138 layoffs. Eighty-one of its workers will lose their jobs by the end of this week, and 56 will have to leave the company in September.
Job losses have also been announced in Fraport (Ljubljana International Airport), which is expected to lay off 120 people, which amounts to around a quarter of all of the airport’s employees, according to unofficial information.
Since cars sales almost completely halted during the lockdown, Hoedlmayr Logistics, a car transportation company, also announced plans to lay off 113 of their 166 employees. Most of these are foreign workers, with just 22 Slovenian citizens.
Already in April Hisense, the Chinese owner of Gorenje, a major European manufacturer of home appliances with its main production facility located in Velenje, announced that about 1,000 of its staff would lose their jobs. Later on in May, Revoz, the Renault subsidiary located in Novo mesto, also announced layoffs for 400 of its workers.
Data from the Employment Service of Slovenia suggest that about 13,000 people lost their jobs during coronavirus shutdown, with the number of people currently looking for employment standing at about 90,000.
The lowest number of registered unemployed in Slovenia since 2004 was 59,303 job seekers in September 2008, and the highest 129,843 job seekers in January 2014, according to the Statistics Office database.
