The number of persons in employment did not increase month-on-month in June (seasonally adjusted) and the year-on-year growth (1.2%) was slightly lower than in the first five months, though still higher than at the end of last year. This year’s acceleration of year-on-year growth was mainly due to a change in the definition of persons in employment at the beginning of the year, which now also includes workers posted abroad. Growth was still the highest in construction, which faces great labour shortages, and where data was impacted by the aforementioned change of definition. The year-on-year increase in the overall number of persons in employment was due to a higher number of employed foreign nationals, while the number of employed Slovenian citizens fell. The share of foreign citizens among all persons in employment was 15.8% in June, 1.2 p.p. higher than a year earlier. The activities with the largest shares of foreign workers were construction (50%), transportation and storage (34%) and administrative and support service activities (28%).

Since April, calculation of data on earnings uses a new data source; in June, the year-on-year real growth in the average gross wage was slightly higher (3.6%) than in the previous months. In the public sector, year-on-year real growth in real gross wages was higher than in the first five months (3.3%), which was related to a nominal wage increase in June, in line with the agreement on the partial adjustment of wages to inflation. Growth in the private sector was lower than on average in the first five months (3.7%). In the first six months, overall average gross wage increased by 6.5% in nominal terms – by 7.6% in the public sector and by 4.4% in the private sector.

In July, Slovenian industrial producer prices remained unchanged month-on-month, while their year-on-year decline further slowed slightly (-1.9%). Against the backdrop of a lower base, the year-on-year price declines in the intermediate goods (-3.4%) and energy (-8.5%) groups continue to slow gradually. However, price increases in the capital goods (0.1%) and consumer goods (1.1%) groups slowed in view of the monthly price drop. On the domestic market, the year-on-year price growth of the latter group dropped by more than half compared to June (0.8%). Since May, the year-on-year price decline on the domestic market has been around 3%. On foreign markets, the year-on-year decline in prices slowed slightly again in July (-0.9%), with only prices in the raw materials group falling (-3.6%), while the highest price increase was observed in the energy group (7.1%).