Unemployment in the Czech Republic rose at the end of last year. According to data published today by the Labor Office of the Czech Republic, four percent of people were out of work in December, while 3.8 percent were in November.
According to analysts, state support related to the coronavirus epidemic keeps it at a relatively low level. Still, a jump in the number of unemployed can be expected after its end. The Labor Office of the Czech Republic informed today that 291,977 people were out of work in December, almost 17,500 more than in November. The number of vacancies increased by 610 month-on-month to 318,582.
However, in a year-on-year comparison, job vacancies fell by almost 22,400, and the unemployment rate rose by 1.1 percentage points.
The last time the Czechia had a higher unemployment rate than last December was in the summer of 2017. However, after most of last year, the development of unemployment was significantly affected by the covid-19 epidemic, the first case of which occurred in the Czech Republic on 1 March.
Minister of Labor Jana Maláčová (ČSSD) justified the December increase in unemployment on Twitter today by saying that seasonal work and more fixed-term contracts are coming to an end at the end of the year. At the same time, she stated that the Czechia still has low unemployment compared to the European Union. According to analysts, this should remain so in the coming months.
Compared to November, unemployment rose in December in all regions and all districts of the Czech Republic. Among the regions, the lowest rate was recorded at the end of the year by the Pardubice region, where 2.9 percent were out of work. On the contrary, the most, 5.6 percent, were in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Among the districts, the lowest unemployment was in the Rychnov region, namely 1.9 percent, and the highest in the Karviná region at 8.1 percent.
On average, there are 0.9 applicants per vacancy in the Czech Republic. However, there are big differences between regions. While in the district of Prague-East, it is on average 0.1 applicants, in the Ústí nad Labem region, there are almost six unemployed in one position, and in the Karviná region over eight.
