ABSTRACT

The unemployment and housing problems both contributed to a sharp decrease in the fertility rate which has contributed to the ageing of the population as the potentially worst problem of Slovenia in the future. The Slovenian economy grew out of the long industrial and crafts tradition. Slovenian employment regulation makes it difficult for an employer to lay-off workers with lower performance in case of unlimited full-time employment, so employers exploit the facility of contractual employment. One of the main characteristics of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises development in transition countries is the relative maturity of owner-managers in the first wave of entrepreneurship. Slovenian government lacked a consistent and diversified approach to the promotion of entrepreneurship. Young entrepreneurs have never been considered a target group to deserve special attention. It was the Small Business Development Centre at the national level that experimented with some projects to promote entrepreneurship and creativity among young people, in cooperation with Employment Services.