Alma Media Corporation                   Press release                  4 July 2024 

ALMA CAREER AIMS TO SOLVE THE LABOUR SHORTAGE IN CEE COUNTRIES AND APPOINTS JOZEF PLSKO AS PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR

Alma Career has appointed Jozef Plsko as the PR Director and member of the Management Team. Mr Plsko will be responsible for strengthening Alma Career's communications and social relations in active dialogue and co-operation with state representatives, employers and employees, NGO's and other stakeholders in Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Baltics.

Mr Plsko is a native of Slovakia and lives in Bratislava, where he will be based. Plsko joins Alma Career from a Slovak bank, where he has worked as the Head of Communications for the past four years. In his role, he has monitored the legislative processes and regulatory changes and actively participated in green projects at the EU level. In addition, his responsibilities consisted of stakeholder engagement, corporate affairs, external, and internal communication, corporate responsibility and sustainability topics (ESG). 
"Jozef Plsko's experience and expertise in government affairs, public relations, stakeholder engagement, and corporate social responsibility is great asset to Alma Career when we start to pursue our goals in Central Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans," comments Vesa-Pekka Kirsi.
Alma Career, the market leader in recruitment services across 11 countries in Central Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans, is focusing on being part of the solution to the increasingly acute workforce shortage in Europe. According to Eurostat, more than 75% of EU (European Union) companies struggle already now to find professionals with the necessary skills to fill jobs. According to the European Union, nearly 63% of small and medium-sized businesses in the EU cannot find the talent they need. At the same time, 21% of people aged 20-64 in the EU are currently inactive and require targeted assistance to enter the labor market. 
"We foresee there's going to be a great demand for jobs in Europe in the upcoming years due to the aging population. The shortage is likely to increase with a projected decline in the working age population from 265 million in 2022 to 258 million by 2030 according to the EU. In other words, a total of 7 million employees will disappear from the European labor market. Our goal is to have dialogue and cooperate with all stakeholders to find effective ways to manage the labor shortage. To carry this role and empower the new Alma Career brand we have established a new Public Relations Director position," says Vesa-Pekka Kirsi, Senior Vice President of Alma Career.

Worklife inclusion as part of the solution: Profesia Lab

As part of the solution to the work force shortage Alma Career has established Profesia Lab, a research-to-practice non-profit collaboration model between Alma Career Slovakia and Michigan State University (MSU). Profesia Lab program is in line with EU Commission's action plan addressing labor and skill shortages by supporting underrepresented youth in transitioning age to enter the labor market and providing support for skills development, training and work experience. 
"I'm excited to join Alma Career which has a unique and strategic position as the natural migration flow from Eastern European countries to the West continues and is expected to increase. I look forward to continuing the excellent initiatives like Profesia Lab with my colleagues and to study the possibilities of expanding the program from Slovakia to other Alma Career countries. Our mission is to create a better world of work for everyone and I am looking forward to follow it," says Jozef Plsko, Director of PR of Alma Career.  

ABOUT ALMA CAREER

Alma Career, the market leader in recruitment services across 11 countries in Europe, operates job board business with offering of over 1,5 million job opportunities, CV database of over 4,3 million, almost 2 million active job alerts, and over 5 million monthly visitors. Alma Career offers recruitment services based on data and technological innovation. The reach of Alma Career network is about 80 million people in Europe, revenue 110 million euros with nearly 800 recruitment business professionals in Eastern Central Europe (2023).

Alma Career is a global company with local heart; it has a deep knowledge, long expertise and cultural understanding of the local markets. Alma Career operates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

About Profesia Lab - Helping with heart (sosrdcom.sk) (https://www.sosrdcom.sk/en/about-profesia-lab/)

Alma Career - A better world of work for everyone (https://www.almacareer.com/)

Alma Career is part of the Alma Media Group: www.almamedia.fi

For further information, please contact:

Jozef Plško, PR & Communications Director, Alma Career, tel. +421 918 477 174