Following a four-month period of decline, unemployment in the Czech Republic experienced an uptick to 3.5% in July from 3.4% in June. The count of individuals without employment increased by over 9,000, reaching 258,933 in comparison to June. Conversely, job vacancies marginally decreased by around 1,000 to 285,627. In the previous July, there were approximately 18,000 fewer jobless individuals than in the current year, with an unemployment rate of 3.3%.
Before this, unemployment had gradually decreased from March to June. However, the July rise aligns with consistent long-term trends and the seasonality of the period, as indicated by the bureau. Karel Trpkoš, the acting director general of the Czech Republic’s Labour Office, explained that the slight uptick in unemployment was attributed to reduced business activities during the summer, a consequence of company-wide vacations. Additionally, the recurring annual influx of employees from the education sector contributed to this trend.
While there has been a minor increase in fresh school graduates reporting for unemployment, their impact on the overall rate remains limited for now. Trpkoš anticipated a more significant wave of graduates entering the job market in September.
Marian Jurečka, the Labour and Social Affairs Minister of the KDU-ČSL party, remarked positively on the Czech Republic’s unemployment rate, emphasizing that it still ranked among the lowest in the EU. According to recent data from Eurostat, only Malta exhibited a lower seasonally adjusted unemployment rate than the Czech Republic.
In terms of regional disparities, the Ústí nad Labem region had the highest unemployment rate in July, with 5.4% of its population jobless. The Moravian-Silesian region followed with a rate of 4.9%. Conversely, the South Bohemia Region maintained the lowest unemployment rate at 2.6%, similar to June. Three other regions – Pardubice, Zlín, and Vysočina – shared an unemployment rate of 2.7%.
At the end of July, the Czech Republic had an average of 0.9 jobseekers per job vacancy, mirroring the situation in June. The Karviná region continued to experience the most significant labor market overcrowding, with 10.2 job seekers per vacancy. This was succeeded by Bruntál with 5.1 applicants per job and Most with 4.4 applicants per job.
During July, the Mladá Boleslav region exhibited the lowest ratio of unemployed individuals relative to job openings, with 0.2 applicants per job. Similar conditions were observed in the Prague-West and Prague-East districts, where there were on average 0.3 applicants per job by the month’s end.
