Labour Market Favorable

As in the preceding quarters, this was due
mainly to the very buoyant trend in jobs subject
to social security contributions. The underlying
unemployment dynamics were also positive.

However, the growing number of asylum appli-
cation decisions led to an increase in the num-
ber of refugees registering as unemployed. The
fact that total registered unemployment none-
theless continued to decrease is attributable to
the increased use of labour market policy in-
struments.

The upbeat employment momen-
tum should persist in the coming months, since
the most important leading indicators of em-
ployment have remained very stable in the last
few months. Unemployment could also con-
tinue to drop slightly, since the active labour
market policy measures will probably be further
expanded in connection with the influx of refu-
gees.