Baseline Study on Population and Employment in Podravje Region, Slovenia

1. BASE LINE STUDY SLOVENIA with focus on Podravje region Dušanka Lužar Šajt Irena Lužar Sonja Gavez Edinburgh, 9. and 10. December 2010

2. Some demografic facts • Population in Podravje region 2010: 323.343; 15.8 % of total Slovene population • Projections: in 2050 the share of people in the group 65+ in Slovenia will be 31.1 % and their number will double.

3. Elderly dependency ratio • Ratio between the total number of elderly persons and the number of persons of working age (active population) • Increasing ratio: from 21.4 in 2004 to 24.9 in 2010 • by 2050 it is projected to more than doubled its current value to 55.6

4. Increasing number of pensioners • Number (old-age, disability, family and farmers’ pensions) has been increasing (2000–2007); on average by 1.5 % per year • 2007: 543,473 retired persons which is 1.3 % morethan previous year

5. Employment • In 2007only 33.5 % of people in the group 55-64 were employed, due to early retirement in the nineties • Employment rate of older women in 2007 was 22.2% while the employment rate of older men was 45.3 %

6. Unemployment • Unemployment increased in 2009 (end of April) compared to previous year for 32.7 % in Slovenia and 27.4 % in Podravje. • The majority of unemployed in Slovenia and in Maribor are male (50.7 %; 50.6 %), while in the area of the Maribor Regional Office women slightly prevail(50.5 %). • In the age structure the highest share belongs to unemployed between 50 and 60 years (28.2 % in Slovenia and 26.5 % in Podravje)

7. Actions to meet the needs of older people (in relation to the pilot action) • Main public actor -Ministry’s of Labour, Family and Social Affairs • arrangement and implementation of laws and other legislation in the area of employment • relations on labour market • health and safety at work, • pension sistem • ALM programmes and insurance against unemployment status of disabled persons and social inclusion

8. Actions to meet the needs of older people (in relation to the pilot action) Changes in legislation Labour Market Management act Mini Job Act Strategy for Active Aging – active aging plan for employment Measures to promote active aging (adopted on 23rd September 2010) – upgraded Strategy for Active Aging until 2010

9. Actions to meet the needs of older people (in relation to the pilot action) Labour Market Management act objectives: Increasing Flexicurity Increasing effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation ofALMP Reduction of extent of administrative burden Expansion of participants entitled to unemployment benefit Introduction of job rotation and job sharing Mini Job Act objectives: Enabling for the temporary and casual employment to have status of official working experience and is calculated into the retirement age Allowing for the possibility of pursuing casual and temporary work to the pensioners, the unemployed and otherwise inactive people Facilitating rapid and less administratively burdened procedure for employers when hiring labour for short, sporadic or part-time work

10. Actions to meet the needs of older people (in relation to pilot action) National Strategy for active aging– active aging plan for employment – proposed measures: • identifying existing barriers to employment of elderly people; • identifying benefits of employment of elderly people; • definition of appropriate measures for the employment of elderly people; • enforcement of appropriate modern pension legislation; • focused on investing in training, lifelong learning and skills aimed at providing the elderly with higher productivity and the employability and competitiveness in the labour market; • aimed at improving working conditions and occupational health and adjustment at work; • to change attitudes of employers and the general public to the elderly (promotion of employment of senior citizens). Concrete measures included in the Slovenian Strategy for active ageing (annual action plans) are still in the process of development.

11. Measure to promote active aging Main goal is raising the employment rate to 75 % in age bracket 20-64 years, also by higher inclusion (43.5%) of older workers (55-64 years) in the labour market till 2020 to approach the goals of »Europe 2020 strategy” Measures are the answer to the ageing of the population as one of major economic and social challenges and low employment rate of elderly in the labour market Among the measures major importance is given to programs of training and education, in which, as within the framework of measures of active employment policy, the most important indicators for monitoring and evaluating activation are given.

12. Measure to promote active aging Measures for unemployed over 45 years: Public works, Subsiding of emplyoment, Assistance programmes for job-seeking, Institutionalised training and introduction into work at employers, Subsiding self-emplyoment and expected emplyoment of elderly within other AEP programmes Measures for elderly employed include: Measures for training and education, Measuers for improvement of work conditions, health at work and competiveness of elderly on LM, Promotion and awareness raising – promotion of culture of prevention and health at work Horizontal measures for promotion active aging: Communication strategy and action plan of PES for promotiong employment of elderly Implementation of above measures is planned in the future years (from 2011)

13. Actions to meet the needs of older people (in relation to pilot action) Most of the direct activities to promote employment of older people: • Measures that raise employability of unemployed • Measures to stimulate employers to create new jobs • Measures to stimulate employers to employ disadvantaged groups, • Training and education for employment Support mostly involves the various financial incentives for employers that are rather non-simulative Activities are financed by national and European sources

14. Actions to meet the needs of older people (in relation to pilot action) • A lot of ALMP programmes/measures for unemployed in the area of carrier planning and job searching, but none of them specialised for people over 50, although they have special needs in the tackled area; • Public work programme; • Part-time employment; • Life Long Learning (Seniors most often take part in the Third Age University, in LLL Centres and Training and education for employment

15. Activities in Podravje • No directlinks between municipalities and elderly. Municipalities finance the programmes and activities of institutions that are founded for the support of elderly population. • Municipalities in Podravje region financially support various projects for elderly. • Municipality of Maribor is currently running Gerontology centre - information point for attaining quality of live for elderly people.

16. Activities in Podravje • In 2009 only 26% of all elderly unepmloyed (over 50) in Podravje region were included in various AEP measures • eim, HRDC and Municipaty of Maribor / Slov. Bistrica, as partners in international project, are currently implementing Q-Ageing project, co-financed with the ERDF funds. Project is focussed on creating better conditions to enable active ageing (employment/LLL/ health/voluntarism) • eim, HRDC with the financial support of EC /Progress/, MoLFSA and municipalities of Podravje (with the support national social partners) run the transnational project “DENS” to promote good practices and search for new solutions in the area of flexicurity and active aging

17. Activities in Podravje The active employment policy programme for 2009 envisaged four measures Measure 1 (Advice and assistance in job seeking) involves in depth work with specific groups of people to improve their employment opportunities and remove barriers by job seeking that they may encounter present and implement activities within the AEP programme within this measure the Job Club programme is carried out. Job Club is a three-month programme - where participants are equipped with information and skills regarding job seeking activities and are provided with constant assistance and counselling in order to improve the effectiveness of their efforts to find employment it will be compared to pilot programme it is not adapted to elderly unemployed needs in 2008 in Podravje region the share of elderly which managed to get employment in the period between enrolment in Job Clubs and 12 months after its completion among all participants which managed to get employment was only 5,4%

18. The priority needs not meet by existing actions: • Need to rise awareness and inform employers as well as wider public about the meaning and added value of older people/employees (information campaigns, discussion tables, etc.) ; • Need to design active labour market policy measures aimed at older unemployed people taking into account key features of weaknesses characterizing this group ; • Need to design models and approaches of new voluntary work/activity schemes for older people with focus on strengthening of inter-generational solidarity ; • Need for designing/implementing support activities/programmes of preparation for the age;

19. The priority needs not meet by existing actions: • Need to design new programmes to promote senior knowledge society – enhance participation in knowledge, culture, e-society; • Need to raise awareness of older people on the meaning of lifelong learning and inform them about the possibilities offered; • Need to ensure existing programmes to come near the local environments /neighbourhoods which are better accessible for older citizens; • Need to ensure regular events open for older citizens to express their needs and suggestions regarding quality ageing; • Need to prepare regional/local action plans/strategies for active ageing.

20. Contact: Dušanka Lužar Šajt Tel.: +386 2 333 13 33 Mob. phone: + 386 41 331 250 E-mail: d.luzarsajt@center-rcv.org