Czech unemployment in Aug stays at July's 8.3%

Prague, Sept 10 (CTK) - Czech jobless rate in August was flat at July's 8.3 percent, employment offices registered 486,693 job seekers, around 1,000 more on the month, and the number of vacancies rose by 3.6 percent, the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry said Monday.

Analysts had expected the August unemployment figure to remain unchanged.

The number of the unemployed will be growing in the coming months, according to them.

"In spite of the fact that the number of job seekers in August increased by around 1,000 only, the figure is worse than in the previous two years, when the month saw a drop in unemployment," UniCredit Bank analyst Pavel Sobisek has told CTK.

Conditions in the labour market have deteriorated for quite a long time but still the development has not been showing signs of a deep recession, he said. Companies are taking a wait-and-see approach, workforce cuts and job creation slowing down accordingly, Sobisek said.

Employment offices registered 42,559 vacancies, a rise of 1,466 from July and an annual hike of 1,801.

There were 472,120 unemployed people at the end of August, who could start to work immediately. The month-on-month increase was 1,156 and the annual growth reached 6,152 people. There were 11.4 job seekers per vacancy, the highest amount of over 38 people seen for Bruntal and Trebic districts.

Month-on-month, unemployment increased in 37 out of 76 districts, except Prague, the biggest rise registered in Benesov and Rychnov nad Kneznou, 4.5 and 4.3 percent, respectively. Plzen, Uherske Hradiste and Kutna Hora also reported a bigger hike.

Forty-four districts reported higher unemployment than the national average, the highest rate seen for Most, 15.7 percent, and Bruntal, 15.3 percent. Karvina and Usti nad Labem districts recorded a jobless rate of 13.7 percent. The lowest rate was traditionally registered in the Prague-east district, 3.4 percent, Prague-west and in the capital city.

Unemployment benefits were granted to 94,535 people in August, or 19.4 percent of all the registered unemployed.