A 2019 report published by The Employment Service Report on Sunday shows that in the past year, there has been an increase in unemployment rates and the number of laid-offs, along with an increase in the difficulty of finding a job.
According to the data, the number of job seekers (which includes both unemployed recipients for a fixed period of several months and recipients of income support for a longer period), rose to an average of 161.6 thousand a month during 2019, compared with an average of 160.7 thousand a month in 2018.
Labor market participation rates have also been moderately but consistently declining for about a year and a half, mainly due to a decline in employment of young people aged 24-15.