After growth came to a standstill at mid-year, the number of persons in employment rose slightly in September (seasonally adjusted), while year-on-year growth (1.2%) was similar to previous months. In September, year-on-year growth remained higher than at the end of last year (0.6%), as its this year’s acceleration is largely due to a change in the definition of persons in employment at the beginning of the year, which now includes workers posted abroad. In September, year-on-year growth in the number of persons in employment was again strongest in construction, which is facing a severe labour shortage, further impacted by the aforementioned change in definition. As has been the case for the previous one-year period, the year-on-year increase in the overall number of persons in employment was driven by a rise in the number of employed foreign nationals, while the number of employed Slovenian citizens fell. The share of foreign citizens among all persons in employment was 15.9% in September, 1.2 p.p. higher than a year earlier. The activities with the highest shares of foreign workers were construction (50%), transportation and storage (34%) and administrative and support service activities (28%).

In September, the year-on-year real growth in the average wage remained relatively high (5.5%). In the public sector, wage growth accelerated slightly (4%), which, in addition to the increase in the value of the pay scale grades in June, is also due to the relatively low base from last year. In the private sector, year-on-year wage growth in September (6.3%) was higher in real terms than on average in the first eight months. This was primarily due to lower year-on-year inflation amid continued strong upward pressure on (nominal) wage growth stemming from a shortage of labour. In the first nine months, overall average gross wage rose by 6.5% year-on-year in nominal terms, with increases of 7.6% in the public sector and 4.3% in the private sector. These increases, however, were lower in both sectors compared to the same period last year.

Slovenian industrial producer prices continued to decline year-on-year in October, falling by 1.3%. This drop was primarily driven by lower prices of energy (-6.2% month-on-month, -15% year-on-year) and intermediate goods (-0.3% month-on-month, -1.3% year-on-year). Meanwhile, the prices of capital goods remained largely unchanged year-on-year (+0.1%), and the year-on-year growth in consumer goods prices has held steady since July (1%). Among consumer goods, prices of non-durable goods rose by 1.9%, whereas prices of durable goods fell by 2.1%. On the domestic market, prices decreased by 2.4% year-on-year in October, while the decline in prices on foreign markets was less pronounced (-0.2%).

Electricity consumption in the distribution network was lower year-on-year in October. Despite one more working day, industrial consumption was 3.8% lower year-on-year, which could be partly attributed to holiday shutdowns and a different distribution of public holidays at the end of the month compared to last year. Household consumption was also down year-on-year (by 3.6%), while small business consumption was only 0.4% lower than in the same period last year.