Prague, Dec 6 (CTK) – Czech employment offices should focus more on the checking of welfare payment and on the search for the jobs for the long-term unemployed in the months to come, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) told journalists after visiting the employment office headquarters yesterday.
For this purpose, European funds and another 300 civil servants, to be hired next July, should be used, Sobotka said.
Around 150,000 people have been without work for over a year in the Czech Republic with its population of 10.5 million.
The employment rate in the Czech Republic is now over 72 percent, which is a record high figure.
The jobless rate fell to 5 percent in October. The employment offices recorded 366,244 job seekers and 19,063 vacancies.
Eurostat says the Czech Republic has the lowest unemployment rate in the EU, 3.8 percent, while the figure in Germany is 4.1 percent.
Sobotka said the Czech results were “excellent figures.”
Employers complain that it is impossible to hire new staff in the Czech Republic. This is why they demand the foreign manpower, Sobotka said, adding that it was the government’s task to “primarily employ people from the Czech Republic.”
A recent analysis conducted by the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry has revealed that the Czech Republic has reached the limit of “natural employment.”
Sobotka said employment could be improved by the commuting contribution, the establishment of socially purposeful jobs and hiring for community work.
A pressure on rising the salaries so that they motivate for work is another way, he added.
