Unemployment in ČR grows to 7.3% in Q4

Prague, Feb 5 (CTK) - Unemployment in the Czech Republic grew by 2.9 percentage points year-on-year to 7.3 percent in the last quarter of 2009, and against the previous quarter was 0.3 points higher, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) announced Friday.

The different survey methodology led to a discrepancy between the International Labour Organisation (ILO) unemployment rate and the registered unemployment rate (the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic).

The development trend was similar for both rates. The registered unemployment rate reached 8.7 percent in Q4 of the year, a growth of 3.3 percentage point over the same year-ago period.

The growth pace slowed down significantly in Q4. Despite that, last year was marked by a sharp growth in unemployment, the statisticians said.

Seasonally adjusted average number of unemployed persons by ILO methodology increased by 16,900 against Q3 2009.

The number of unemployed persons reached 385,000 (189,000 of this women) and was 154,200 higher than in Q4 2008.

In relative terms, the increase was at approximately two thirds (i.e. 66.8 percent). The number of unemployed women grew by 60,100 and the number of unemployed men by 94,200.

The number of persons unemployed for one year and more increased slightly compared with Q4 2008 - by 5,600 to 112,900 persons, i.e. almost one third of all the unemployed (29.3 percent), while in Q4 2008 it made 46.5 percent at relatively low level of unemployment.

Low unemployment rates in spite of the growth of unemployment in 2009 were steadily recorded for university graduates (3 percent) and persons with full secondary education (5.2 percent).

High unemployment persists among persons with basic education (25.3 percent), and a slightly above-average unemployment rate was recorded in the large group of persons with secondary education without the school-leaving examination, including persons with apprenticeship education (8.1 percent).

The preliminary Q4 data confirm the negative impact of lower economic performance on total employment even when the average number of jobless, seasonally adjusted, decreased by 5,400 people (-0.1 percent).

The number of people with only one or one main job decreased by 106,200 yr/yr to 4.927 million in the biggest yr/yr drop since 1999.

The relative drop in the number of the first (main) job holders made 2.1 percent compared to Q4 2008. An overwhelming majority of them worked full time, the percentage of part-time jobs was 5.8 percent in the civil sector.

Compared with other EU countries, the Czech Republic lags behind in the labour market's flexibility, Confederation of Industry spokesman Milan Mostyn said.

The share of people with a part-time job stands at 5.5 percent in the Czech Republic, the third worst result behind Bulgaria and Slovakia. The average share in the EU is 18.7 percent.

A second important finding is that only less than a third of the 173,000 people not registered as unemployed by the ILO methodology but looking for a job anyway are willing to start to work in a fortnight.

This shows that some people are not sufficiently flexible and willing to work and also that the labour market is not flexible enough, Mostyn added.

The number of employees, including members of producer cooperatives, decreased by 123,800 compared with Q4 2008 to 4.097 million and their share in total employment was 83.1 percent.

In contrast, the number of the self-employed in main job including family workers grew by 17,800 compared with Q4 2008 to 830,600 and their share in total employment was 16.9 percent (+0.7 percentage points).

The trend of decreasing number of employees including members of production co-operatives did not show any dramatic progress; just for comparison, in Q3 2009, the yr/yr decrease was 117,500 persons. It still applies that the loss of employees contributed to the fall of employment in the Czech Republic in 2009, the CSU said.