In February, the total number of job seekers decreased by 551 to 282,508 and the unemployment rate remained at 3.9%. That is 19,075 more when compared to the same period of 2022. The unemployment rate remained 3.6% for men, and it equalled 4.2% for women.
A month-on-month increase in unemployment rate was recorded in 27 districts, with the highest increase in the districts of Rychnov nad Kněžnou (by 3.3%), Rakovník (by 2.6%), Pardubice (by 2.0%), Teplice (by 1.9%), Mladá Boleslav (by 1.8%), Přerov (by 1.7%), České Budějovice (by 1.7%) and Hradec Králové (by 1.6%).
The unemployment rate is stagnating again after an increase in January. Even though beginning of the year is traditionally a period of indiscriminate recruitment, many companies have stopped recruiting due to the energy crisis and uncertainty in the labour market and prefer to wait and see how the situation develops in the first quarter. Some companies are even forced to reduce personnel costs. However, we have entered the crisis with a healthy labour market and there is still a persisting hunger for talents, especially in technical fields – not only in IT, but also in construction and mechanical engineering. We expect stagnation or a slight increase in unemployment in the coming months, but collective redundancies and a deeper economic crisis are not an imminent threat in the Czech Republic according to the forecast of the Chamber of Commerce.
As of 28 February 2023, the Czech Labour Office registered a total of 283,097 vacancies. That is 1,956 more than in the previous month and 80,820 fewer than in February 2022. On average, there was one applicant for each vacancy, with the highest numbers reported in the districts of Karviná (10.6), Bruntál (5.9), Most (4.7), Ústí nad Labem (4.0), Jeseník (4.0), Děčín (3.9), Opava (3.5) and Hodonín (3.2).
According to the latest available data, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate, processed by EUROSTAT for the purposes of international comparison, reached only 2.6% in the Czech Republic in February, as compared to 6.4% in the EU27. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Czech Republic was 2.5%, compared to 6.1% in the EU27.
In the 4th quarter of 2022, the average gross monthly nominal salary*) (hereinafter “average salary”) reached CZK 43,412, which is CZK 3,188 (7.9%) more than in the same period in 2021. Consumer prices increased by 15.7% during that period, and the real salary consequently decreased by 6.7%. The amount of salaries increased by 8.9%, and the number of employees grew by 0.9%. Compared to the previous quarter, the seasonally adjusted average salary grew by 2.1% during the 4th quarter of 2022.
Compared to the same period of the previous year, the median salary (CZK 37,463) increased by 9.0%, equalling CZK 40,232 for men and CZK 34,554 for women. Eighty percent of employees received salaries between CZK 18,666 and CZK 70,514.
*calculated to the number of employees in the national economy
source: MPSV, ČSÚ, ec.europa.eu
source: MPSV, ČSÚ, ec.europa.eu