Unemployment is sinking, industry lacks workers

The drop in unemployment from 6,3 percent in July to 6,2 percent in August confirms the ability of the Czech industry and the whole economy to create jobs. There were less than 451 thousand people registered as unemployed last month, which is the lowest number since 2008.

The number of vacancies is growing as well, there are some 104 thousand of them now. That's 46 thousand more than more than one year ago. In July, there were almost 6000 less vacancies than in August.

„The drop in unemployment is a good news, indicating that the industry with its seven-percent growth is able to dynamically produce new jobs," Confederation of Industry's president Jaroslav Hanák stressed.

„It confirms the reports on growing disproportion between the demand for technical and other scarce skills and the offer on the job market," Hanák added. „This disproportion will deepen in the next time and the industrial companies will have to search with difficulty for a work force."

Just now, the Confederation of Industry engages in an activity of the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to gain workers from the Ukraine. In accordance with its findings, several dozen large companies that had been addressed by the Confederation have offered jobs to almost one thousand Ukrainians.

On regional level, the unemployment rate has further decreased in 60 regions over the last month, and has slightly risen in 6 regions (the highest increase being that of 1.4 % in Znojmo District). The unemployment rate remains higher in Northern Bohemia (Ústí District 9.2%) and Northern Moravia (8.5%), however only 6 regions now evidence unemployment rate in excess of 10% (Most 11.7%, Ústí nad Labem 11.0%, Karviná 11.2%, Bruntál and the City of Ostrava – both 10.3%).

The already statistically confirmed growth of the Czech economy can be documented by continued increase in job offerings through the Labour Office to nearly 104 thousand as of August 31, 2015 (compared to less than 50 thousand in August 2014). The influence of supportive measures within the governmental Active Employment Policy (community works, so-called socially beneficial positions and protected positions for disabled persons) has apparently decreased - as of August 31, approx. 60 thousand job seekers benefited from the support, whereby as of May 31, 2015 nearly 100 thousand).