EMPLOYMENT POLICY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC IN THE CONTEXT ECONOMIC CYCLE.

The aim of the contribution is to examine the impact of employment policy instruments on the development of unemployment and employment in Slovakia and in selected EU countries, as well as the definition of employment policy instruments, suitable for application in SR. We are focused on explaining various interpretations and opinions on the origins, consequences and possibilities of eliminating the negative phenomena associated with unemployment. Attention is also paid to the mapping of the most important historical and political concepts of the perception of the labor market, employment and unemployment. In the paper, we are focusing on defining the object of our research and defining the methods we use. In addition to basic methods used in scientific works, such as economic analysis, the logical-historical approach also uses basic statistical methods. To assess the effectiveness of the employment policy instruments, a key is to exame the impact of employment policy instruments on employment and unemployment indicators. We first deal with the impacts of tools on selected indicators from a logical-historical approach, a theoretical analysis, as well as an analysis of the fulfillment of the set goals. Later, based on the use of statistical methods, we describe the impact of selected employment policy instruments on employment and unemployment indicators in selected countries. In the final part of the paper, we summarize the the results and facts. The results of the analysis about the impact of the employment policy instruments lead to the conclusion that the amount of funds allocated to active labor market measures successfully affects employment and unemployment indicators, but not all countries are also meeting the goals of the Europe 2020 economic strategy. At the same time, not all employment policy instruments are effective in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]