Research background: The current health crisis, which began to take shape in mid-March 2020 due to the massive spread of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has shaped the face of the Slovak labour market the most. Slovakia, similarly, to other countries in the world, has operated with several non-pharmaceutical anti-pandemic measures taken by the government to reduce the spread of the virus or reverse adverse developments. On the other hand, these measures have frozen production, and business activities of companies annulled not only the number of physical meetings with business collaborators but also business contracts themselves. Consequently, the demand for new labour has decreased, and in many cases, redundancies have occurred. Purpose of the article: The study aims to develop a comprehensive and detailed analysis of unemployment and its development in Slovakia, during the 1st and 2nd wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, determine the extent to which the anti-pandemic measures have affected the Slovak labour market, and identify the most affected groups of unemployed. Methods: To analyze the impact of the anti-pandemic measures on the unemployment situation in Slovakia, we applied the approach where the statistically created hypothetical state of the absence of the pandemic was compared with the real state as the consequence of the pandemic. The hypothetical state was modelled by the autoregressive 1st order or one-dimensional time series model with a linear trend and seasonability. Findings & value added: The results of the analysis identify the groups of the population, mostly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic together with the quantification of the impact on unemployment. The findings of quantification of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the Slovak labour market can be further used in creating targeted measures aimed at supporting unemployed individuals or at the sustainability of already existing jobs and in other governmental economic and social decisions.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has significant consequences in many areas and has largely contributed to rising unemployment in almost all countries. The situation is similar in Slovakia, where various degrees of shut-down measures have caused an inflow of newly unemployed people in all age groups. This article focuses on unemployed youth as a vulnerable and disadvantaged group of the working population, as starting a career during a pandemic is complicated or even impossible in some industries under these conditions. In this study, the real situation in Slovakia in 2020-2021 is compared with the development of the job market before the pandemic. The main contribution of the study is the quantification of the extent of the pandemic impact on unemployed youth, but also on other age groups; this evaluation can be considered very accurate given the counterfactual approach used. The results of this study can be used in practice to identify the most affected groups of the population and to implement policy measures aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic, and then to adjust the intensity and amount of allocated funds that will be needed to be spent to support the placement of young people into the labor market.

Research background: Investing in the capital market is one of the ways for an investor to increase his income. Investing in the capital market is described as very risky, but it provides us with an opportunity to achieve high returns. There is an infinite number of assets on the market that an investor can include in his portfolio, and which assets he chooses to invest in will ultimately affect the return and risk of the created portfolio. Therefore, the investor should think rationally and should try to reduce the risk of his investment. Purpose of the article: This article aims to point out the effect of diversification through the creation of a portfolio of financial assets. Methods: This paper uses modern portfolio theory and focuses on the use of the Markowitz model. The optimal weights of individual assets in the compiled portfolio are calculated using the Lagrange function. We use data on weekly closing prices of individual stocks, commodity and mutual fund. Findings & Value added: The main finding was that the risk associated with the created portfolio is lower than the risk associated with investing in individual assets.

In Slovakia, the contribution to graduate practice is one of the active labour market policy interventions, the main goal of which for young school-leavers is to gain first job experiences and contacts with potential employers. Among the young jobseekers, it is one of the most used interventions. This study aims to provide a counterfactual impact evaluation of this contribution on the employability of its participants and also on their monthly wages. The total period under review is 2014–2017, during which the treated individuals participated in the graduate practice during 2014–2015. Then, their course of employment and average monthly wages were monitored over a two-year impact period, covering the period 2015–2017. The study was carried out using a database of 12,953 treated eligible participants of graduate practice and 83,907 non–treated controls. The data used in the study is managed by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic (COLSAF SR) and the Social Insurance Agency (SIA). For the evaluation, propensity score matching was used, where the propensity scores were estimated using classification and regression trees. The results of the study show that the participants of the graduate practice were employed on average three months longer during the two-year impact period after the end of the intervention as full-time employees or self-employed, and their average salary was almost 217 euros higher than that of the control group of non-participants.