Prague, Sept 0 (CTK) – Unemployment in the Czech Republic stagnated at 3.1 percent in August, there were 230,499 jobless people, the lowest August value since 1997, and the number of vacancies increased to over 313,000, the Employment Office said today.
Analysts expected a drop to 3 percent. Last year in August, unemployment stood at 4 percent.
The labour market is still influenced by good condition of the Czech economy and seasonal jobs, in particular in construction, forestry, agriculture, tourism, hotels and restaurants, the Employment Office said.
“Another revival on the labour market should arrive in September. Unemployment could thus stagnate or fall moderately,” said Employment Office CEO Katerina Sadilkova.
The lowest, 2 percent jobless rate was in the South Bohemia and Pardubice regions.
The Plzen Region had a 2.1 percent unemployment and Prague and the Hradec Kralove Region a 2.2 percent jobless rate.
On the other hand, unemployment in the Usti and Moravia-Silesia regions reached 4.7 percent, the highest figure in the Czech Republic.
The Usti, South Moravia, Olomouc and Moravia-Silesia regions had a higher number of unemployed than of vacancies.
Among districts, Rychnov nad Kneznou with 1.1 percent had the best result. Unemployment in the Jindrichuv Hradec district was at 1.2 percent and in Prague-East at 1.3 percent.
The Karvina district with 7.1 percent was at the bottom of the list.
The same unemployment as the nationwide average or higher was reported by 27 districts.
A month-on-month hike was seen for 32 districts in August, the highest in Plzen-South (+4.5 percent) and Plzen-North (+4 percent). Unemployment fell in 45 districts.
There were 0.7 job applicants per vacancy on average.
The highest number of job offers, almost 63,000, was from employers in Prague and the lowest from those in the Karlovy Vary Region (some 8,700).
The highest demand in August was for workers in construction of buildings, auxiliary workers in production, assembly workers, in cleaning jobs in hotels and other buildings, for lorry and high-lift truck drivers, warehouse keepers, welders and cooks, for example. Interest is traditionally high in technical professions across all sectors.
With respect to lack of workforce, some employers do not strictly stick to all requirements for qualifications and education.
“The priority for employers is interest in the given position, willingness to learn, reliability, flexibility and appetite to work. Employers train their employees and work with them much more than before, they organise training for them, for instance,” Sadilkova said.
The Employment Office registered higher demand for seasonal workers in August. It registered 28,880 such positions at the end of August.
Among the job applicants in the Employment Office’s files were the most frequently people with low qualifications, elementary, uncompleted and secondary education, apprentice training or secondary school graduates with a school-leaving certificate.
The average age of the unemployed was 43 years. Among the registered jobless were 82,952 people aged over 50, which makes a 36 percent share.
From the total number of job seekers, 30.6 percent were without a job for over a year.
Unemployment in Czech regions (in pct):
|
July 2018 |
August 2018 |
|
|
Prague |
2.1 |
2.2 |
|
Central Bohemia |
2.7 |
2.7 |
|
South Bohemia |
2.0 |
2.0 |
|
Plzen |
2.0 |
2.1 |
|
Karlovy Vary |
2.8 |
2.8 |
|
Usti |
4.7 |
4.7 |
|
Liberec |
3.2 |
3.1 |
|
Hradec Kralove |
2.2 |
2.2 |
|
Pardubice |
2.0 |
2.0 |
|
Vysocina |
2.8 |
2.8 |
|
South Moravia |
3.8 |
3.8 |
|
Olomouc |
3.2 |
3.2 |
|
Zlin |
2.6 |
2.6 |
|
Moravia-Silesia |
4.8 |
4.7 |
|
CR |
3.1 |
3.1 |
Source: Employment Office