While only 30.7% of older people were employed in Slovenia in 2005, the share stood at a mere 18.7% for women, says a document on employment published by the European Commission on Monday.
This puts Slovenia below the EU average, which stood at 42.5% (33.7% of older women and 51.8% of older men) of older people employed in the 25 EU member states in 2005.
Youth unemployment meanwhile stood at 15.9% in 2005 and was higher for young women (17.8%).
The report also points to considerable regional disparities in unemployment, singling out Eastern Slovenia as lagging behind.
It says that the "fairly high level of total expenditure on social protection", which reached 24.3% of GDP in 2004, helps keep those at the brink of poverty at low numbers.
The EU Council also made several recommendations for Slovenia, calling on the country to strengthen active inclusion of especially young long-term unemployed persons.
It also wants the country to prevent further marginalisation of those who have the least chance of employment and to tackle regional differences.
The report points to issues regarding sustainability of public finance, as "age-related public social expenditure is expected to rise by 9.6 percentage points by 2050 and the old-age dependency ratio (21.7% in 2005) to more than double (55.6% in 2050)".
Therefore the Council repeated its call on the country to ensure financial sustainability and adequacy of pensions, mainly through strengthening pension reform.
According to the report, the employment rate in Slovenia is slightly above the EU average (66.0% in 2005), and the unemployment rate is one of the lowest, at 6.5%.
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