More than five months have passed since an introduction of the state assistance scheme for people who have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis and aren't able to repay their mortgages and it has not been used by a single person yet.

The Slovak labour market is battling the problem of long-term joblessness, which probably will not fall until at least 2012. It's a long-standing problem in Slovak economy. For a long time Slovakia is among the countries with the highest long-term unemployment in the European Union.