Prague, Sept 3 (CTK) – Czech companies that do not have enough local staff are offering over 15,000 jobs to foreigners, which is five times more than a year ago, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
“As the offer of jobs in the Czech Republic considerably exceeds its demographic capacities, there is no choice but to import the workforce,” a personnel agency executive is quoted as saying.
Last June, Czech companies were offering 2,963 jobs they were ready to fill with foreigners, MfD writes.
The figure quintupled to 15,378 by this June, it adds.
The reasons is simple. The Czech economy is doing well, companies have enough contracts, but not enough employees, MfD writes.
As a result, roughly every seventh vacancy can be occupied by a foreigner because some companies do not have any special demands such as the language proficiency, it adds.
“We have been demanding for long an open immigration policy, especially due to the need of technically skilled staff,” Milan Mostyn, spokesman for the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (SPDCR), is quoted as saying.
The SPDCR mainly encourages the arrival of Ukrainians whose work permit quota is only a few hundreds of persons, MfD writes.
“The companies’ demand is considerably higher,” Mostyn said.
It is not as easy as in the past to hire foreign workers. During the recession, the state considerably limited the opportunity to employ foreigners such as Ukrainians, Mongolians and the Vietnamese who made up the most numerous groups of foreign workers before 2008, MfD writes.
Many of them settled down in the Czech Republic, but due to the recession, they were forced to return home.
Ukrainians are greatly interested in moving to the Czech Republic, MfD writes.
The current influx of immigrants to Europe may help the Czech economy in this respect, it adds.
On the other hand, foreign workers from some countries such as Slovakia are leaving the Czech Republic, MfD writes.
Slovakia used to be the closest pool for manpower, but Slovaks’ interest has ebbed, it adds.
The reasons are simple. Salaries have risen, while the jobless rate has fallen in Slovakia, MfD writes.
“As a result, we are mainly looking for new foreign workers in Romania and Bulgaria,” Tomas Surka, head of the Czech branch of the McRoy human resources company, is quoted as saying.
As these countries are EU members, it is quite easy to hire people from them, MfD writes.
Last December, over 250,000 foreigners worked legally in the Czech Republic with its 10.5 million population.
Foreigners mostly occupy blue collar jobs. Czechs themselves are not interested in the jobs here, preferring similar, but better-paid work further to the West, MfD writes.
