AmCham Slovakia

Talent Attraction – Navigating Slovakia’s Labor Market Transformation

Slovakia faces a crucial challenge: ensuring a strong, competitive workforce amid demographic shifts and evolving economic conditions. Upskilling and reskilling domestic talent, attracting and retaining an international workforce are key to sustaining economic growth and innovation. How can labor market policies, legal frameworks, and digital solutions enhance Slovakia’s appeal to international professionals?

Slovakia is one of the fastest aging economies. The proportion of citizens of productive age is expected to decrease by 21.000, impacting the economy as of 2030.

Slovak companies are the most affected by brain-drain in the region and the least convinced of the country’s ability to attract international talent, limiting their ability to innovate. Despite recent legislative changes, employers are struggling to bring in a foreign workforce fast enough to fill their needs.  On the other hand, the international talent pool in Slovakia has increased, mostly due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, yet its potential remains underutilized.

With an aging population and lack of skilled workers, tapping into the foreign workforce can support economic growth. Nevertheless, vision and effective cooperation between actors is essential to ensure that foreign workers can contribute positively to the economy and society. This session will explore strategic approaches to workforce retention and attraction, including the role of modernized labor laws, digitalization, and effective mechanisms to harness the potential of the foreign workforce. Experts will discuss what steps are necessary to create an inclusive and future-ready labor market and what is already being done in this domain at the national and municipal levels.

• Viktória Skřivánková, Senior Project Associate, International Organization for Migration (Moderator)

CONCLUDING REMARKS