This country profile highlights recent policy issues and developments related to inclusive entrepreneurship in Slovenia. It also benchmarks key self-employment and entrepreneurship indicators for women, youth, seniors and immigrants against the European Union average.
The Missing Entrepreneurs 2019
Policies for Inclusive Entrepreneurship
Abstract
Self-employment rates for women, youth, seniors and immigrants were below the European Union (EU) averages in 2018. However, self-employed people from these groups were slightly more likely than the EU average to have employees in 2018. This was particularly true for self-employed immigrants since 47.1% had at least one employee in 2018 relative to the EU average of 27.6%. A relatively high share of youth self-reported that they are involved in creating and managing new businesses between 2014 and 2018 (9.8% vs. 7.7% for the EU). This is up from 6.2% over the 2009-13 period, but this increase is likely due to the greater number of youth entrepreneurs who reported that they started their business due to a lack of employment opportunities.
“False” self-employment is a growing concern as the Slovenian Statistical Office estimates that the number of people in “false” self-employment nearly doubled between 2012 and 2015. Trade unions are particularly vocal about this issue as these workers typically have less job security, lower earnings, fewer training opportunities and lower quality working conditions.
SPIRIT Slovenia (Public Agency for Entrepreneurship, Internationalisation, Foreign Investments and Technology) supports entrepreneurship, including through targeted programmes for youth and women. In 2018, SPIRIT introduced a new network of Slovenian Business Points (SPOT Points) to help entrepreneurs understand and meet their regulatory obligations. It is open to all entrepreneurs but it is expected to be used heavily by entrepreneurs from disadvantaged groups. The initiative has a five-year budget of EUR 11.8 million. SPOT portals will offer free information, training and counselling and 12 regional SPOT offices will be developed to offer business counselling, workshops, training and networking.
This profile is based on a recent country assessment report, which can be found at: www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/inclusive-entrepreneurship.htm.
Notes: The self-employment rate is defined as the number of self-employed people (15-64 years old) divided by the number of people in employment. The TEA rate is the proportion of adults (18-64 years old) involved in setting up a business or managing a business that is less than 42 months old. Necessity entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship activities that were launched because there were no other options in the labour market. Early-stage entrepreneurs are those who are in the process of setting up a business or managing a business that is less than 42 months old. The EU average in Panels D-F excludes Czech Republic and Malta for the period 2014-18 and Malta for the period 2009-13.
Sources: Panels A and B: Eurostat (2019), Labour Force Survey, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/lfs/data/database; Panel C: Eurostat (2018), Self-employment, Labour Force Survey ad-hoc module, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/lfs/data/database; Panels D-F: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2019), Special tabulations of the GEM survey 2014-18.