In March, the number of job seekers decreased by 4,083 to a total of 322,140, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.3%. That is 33,517 more when compared to the same period of 2024. The unemployment rate remained 4.6% for women and it dropped to 4.1% for men.
Among the districts, unemployment was highest in the districts of Most and Karviná (over 8%), and lowest in the districts of Praha-východ, Praha-západ, Rychnov nad Kněžnou, Pelhřimov, Benešov and Zlín (less than 3%). A highest month-on-month increase in the unemployment rate was recorded in the districts of Most, Ústí nad Labem, Sokolov, Jablonec nad Nisou, Prostějov, Praha, Plzeň-city, Teplice and Mělník. A month-on-month decrease in the unemployment rate was not recorded in any districts.
In March, there was a slight decrease in the unemployment rate. After a cautious first quarter, companies are gradually returning to hiring, which they had postponed in previous months due to economic uncertainty. Favourable weather has also accelerated hiring for seasonal work. Companies have started recruiting temporary workers mainly in sectors such as construction, agriculture and tourism.
The decrease in the unemployment rate is beneficial for employees, who have better options when changing jobs or negotiating better working conditions, such as pay rises. However, companies are still struggling with a shortage of skilled workers and are looking in vain for technical professions, nurses or social workers. The situation is complicated by the fact that available candidates often lack the necessary skills and reskilling is not yet sufficient to replace current market needs. This long-standing unmet demand may be offset in the near future by the increasingly important use of artificial intelligence, which is already replacing some activities. This can be seen most clearly in IT, where it is helping to compensate for the long-term shortage of workers.
In the future, the Czech labour market may be negatively affected by new US tariffs on car imports, which could weaken the export performance of the key Czech sector - automotive. The Czech economy has long been strongly linked to the production of components for foreign car companies. If there is no demand for cars from overseas, the need for components and the associated demand for workers in Czech factories will also decrease. Such a development could be a further shock to the already weakened labour market, especially in the manufacturing regions.
As at the end of March 2025, the Czech Labour Office registered a total of 91,752 vacancies. That is 3,690 more than in the previous month. On average, there were 3.5 applicants per vacancy, with the highest number of applicants in the districts of Karviná (24.3), Děčín (13.9), Sokolov (12.8), Hodonín (12.0), Bruntál (11.8).
This year's data on the number of job vacancies registered by the Czech Labour Office are not comparable with older statistics, due to a change in the system of their registration, job offers older than six months are now automatically removed from the database.
In the 4th quarter of 2024, the average gross nominal monthly salary* (hereinafter “average salary”) was CZK 49,229, which is CZK 3,322 (7.2%) higher than in the same period in 2023. Consumer prices increased by 2.9% during this period, and real wages increased by 4.2% as a result. The amount of salaries increased by 7.4%, and the number of employees grew by 0.1%. Compared to the previous quarter, the seasonally adjusted average salary grew by 1.7% during the 4th quarter of 2024.
Compared to the same period of the previous year, the median salary (CZK 41,739) increased by 4.2%, which corresponds to CZK 45,004 for men and CZK 38,643 for women. Eighty percent of employees received salaries between CZK 21,577 and CZK 80,431.
source: MPSV, ČSÚ
* calculated to the number of employees in the national economy