The Czech unemployment level was 3.6% in June, which was the same level as in May. There were 272,684 persons registered with the country’s Labour Office, which was 1,638 less than in May. In year-on-year terms, the unemployment level was up by 0.2 percentage points, or by 22,892 job applicants. Head of the Labour Office Daniel Kristof commented on the developments in the first half of 2024. He highlighted “three clear super-trends” which are the dropping interest in “low qualified work” and “growth of interest in requalification”. “The third significant trend is the growing number of people which the Labour Office returns to the labour market,” Kristof commented. The unemployment level has dropped month-on-month in 12 of the 14 regions in the country and in 52 of the 77 districts. The district of Most in the north of the country along the German border has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 8.4%, replacing the district Karvina in the northeast after the large coal mine CSA shut down and laid off a large part of the staff. At the end of June 123,813 Ukrainians sheltered in Czechia under the temporary protection scheme, introduced following the February 2022 Russian invasion...
co-written by Catherine Cox. The head of baggage handling at Prague’s airport resigned after hundreds of travelers reported lost luggage, and employees declared a strike alert on Tuesday, threatening to snarl arrivals during the busy summer tourist season. Tomas Svoboda stepped down from his position as chairman of the board of the airport baggage handling company at Vaclav Havel Airport Prague, airport spokeswoman Klara Diviskova said in a statement. He’ll be replaced by Jiri Jarkovsky, who said he’ll focus on rectifying the crisis that resulted from the abnormally high airport traffic carrying summer visitors to many popular European cities. “I believe that we will be able to prevent the situations that have occurred in recent days at the Prague airport,” Jarkovsky said, according to the CTK news agency. Meanwhile, the Land and Air Trade union said on Monday that they would hold a strike on a date that they will announce later. The union represents 400 of the 2,700 workers at the airport. The union said its workers will walk out because of insufficient staffing, poor management, and low pay, among other reasons, according to a statement. Passenger arrivals surge during the summer, and Prague Airport expects about 3.5 million...
Israeli startup Similarweb, which already has development centres in Tel Aviv and Kiev, is expanding to Prague. The company is starting with 25 employees and plans to grow to 100 developers. CEO and co-founder Or Offer began his entrepreneurial journey in a family jewellery business in Jerusalem. Seeking more than the family trade, Offer aimed to transform the small shop into a well-known brand. When he searched for information on jewelry designer David Yurman for inspiration, he discovered a lack of online tools to find similar jewelry stores. This led him and his friends to develop a browser plugin that analyzed browsing history to recommend similar sites. The plugin quickly became popular, with tens of millions of downloads. That was in 2007. Today, Similarweb offers much more. Its web intelligence platform helps businesses make data-driven decisions, analyzing everything from basic traffic data to online user behavior. Its clients include Google, eBay, Adidas, Zalando, and Booking.com. Similarweb chose Prague for its new development centre due to the city’s wealth of talent, culture of innovation, and problem-solving ethos. “We are opening this centre in Prague primarily because of the talented professionals here. Given our focus on big data and AI, we also...
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on Tuesday he had summoned Russia’s ambassador in Prague following an attack on a children’s hospital in Ukraine’s capital, saying those who carried out the strike were the “dregs of humanity”. Ukrainian authorities say Russia struck the main children’s hospital in Kyiv with a cruise missile and fired missiles at other cities on Monday, killing at least 41 civilians across the country. Russia denied it had attacked a Kyiv children’s hospital and said, without providing evidence, that Ukrainian anti-missile fire was to blame for Monday’s strike. “I have decided to summon the Russian ambassador,” Lipavsky said on social media platform X. “Murderers who attack children in hospitals are the dregs of humanity. He has been instructed to deliver the message in Moscow.” The Russian ambassador met a Czech deputy minister while Lipavsky was on a trip to Washington for a NATO summit. Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Zelenskiy said more than 100 buildings had been damaged, including the children’s hospital and a maternity centre in Kyiv, children’s nurseries and a business centre and homes. “The Russian terrorists must answer for this,” he wrote. “Being concerned does not stop terror. Condolences are not a...
An unauthorized modification of the fifth-floor terrace in Prague’s Máj building has caused a stir. The terrace was expanded to include children’s play elements without approval from the building authority. This expansion reduced parking space, violating regulations, according to an official statement obtained by our newspaper. The legal action is being taken against Máj Národní, a subsidiary of Amadeus Real Estate. The developer claims the issue arose from a mistake by the outdoor playground supplier. “It appears the supplier incorrectly assumed that installing mobile play elements did not require approval, as it typically wouldn’t. However, given the building’s status as a cultural monument, the standard procedure should have been followed. We unfortunately discovered this only after the fact,” said Martin Klán, a member of the Amadeus Real Estate board. “He apparently misjudged the installation of the mobile play equipment on the terrace as a non-structural alteration, which is not normally subject to the permitting process,” added Klán. “We are already working to rectify this formal error and are discussing the adjustment with all the authorities concerned and the building authority,” he assured. As a result, the building authority initiated proceedings to remove the structure in late June. The developer requested...
US fast-food giant Wendy’s announced on Tuesday its ambitious plans to open hundreds of restaurants across Europe in the next decade. The expansion will begin in the Czech Republic and include Spain, Portugal, France, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Romania, and Poland. Currently, Wendy’s operates only in the UK outside the United States, starting from 2021. Michael Clarke, Wendy’s Managing Director for Europe, described the Czech Republic as an ideal base for the chain’s European expansion. He cited the strong domestic market, geographical location, and the country’s fast-food tradition as key factors. This is why the Czech Republic is part of the first wave of the expansion. “We were encouraged by the positive response to a recent event at the US Embassy in Prague, where we received initial franchise applications,” Clarke said. “We welcome more applicants who want to partner with us and operate Wendy’s restaurants in the Czech Republic.” Wendy’s plans to operate up to 50 restaurants in Britain by the end of the year, with a long-term goal of 400. Although the Czech Republic is in the first wave, negotiations are moving fastest in Ireland and Romania. The company has signed contracts with franchisees in these countries...
People begging for money with a litter of kittens sleeping in their lap or a forlorn-looking dog lying on the ground beside them are a common sight in Prague streets, but could soon become a thing of the past if a proposed change to the law is accepted. People have been fooled by this trick, resulting in more and more animals being kept on the streets in harsh weather conditions, which harms their health and well-being. This problem is growing, especially in larger cities, and often involves foreigners, particularly Romanian gangs. “These people get animals and force them to stay in the hot city center for days without being able to move properly,” explains Pavel Buršík from OBRAZ (Obránci zvířat). Fortunately, these practices might soon end, as Prague City is preparing changes to the rules that restrict begging. If everything goes as planned, begging with an animal and public performances involving animals will be banned throughout the capital. Councilors will vote on the proposals, and municipal districts can comment on them until tomorrow. According to Jiří Pospíšil, the deputy mayor of Prague who initiated the changes, the new rules could take effect next year. He noted that the proposals had...
Tesla is expanding in the Czech Republic. On July 15, the American carmaker will open a second full-fledged dealership in Brno’s Židenice, on the premises of Nová Zbrojovka. This adds to their existing store in Čestlice near Prague and a pop-up sales center in Ostrava’s Karolina shopping center. The new Brno dealership spans a thousand square meters and includes a service center and a delivery center. Cars will be delivered from the factory near Berlin or from Shanghai in China. Customers can test drive the full range of Tesla models (Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y) and book test drives online or on-site. Opening a second store in the Czech Republic confirms the strength of the local market. The country boasts one of the densest networks of Tesla fast-charging stations in Eastern Europe, with 56 Supercharger stations. Tesla leads the Czech EV sales ranking with 1,713 vehicles delivered in the first half of the year, followed by Skoda (434 Enyaqs), Volvo (332 EVs), and Hyundai (311 cars). The launch of a subsidy program for companies in March spurred growth in EV sales, increasing the share of EVs in total sales from 2.6% to 3.5% year-on-year. “EVs are...
There are nearly 1.2 million species of plants and animals known to science. Sadly, over 45,000 of these are currently threatened with extinction. Each time a species goes extinct, it creates a void in the food web and adversely affects an entire ecosystem. Moreover, these negative effects are not just limited to the wild, they influence human lives as well. This is why it becomes crucial to prevent species from going extinct, but the question is — how do we do it? One great answer to this question lies in an approach that conservationists at the Prague Zoo used to save Przewalski’s horse, the only remaining wild horse species on Earth. And it almost went extinct in the 1960s. Recently, a total of seven Przewalski horses were reintroduced in Kazakhstan’s vast grassy plains known as the Golden Steppe, one of the natural habitats of these animals where they were last seen 200 years ago. The trick is to take timely action and respect genetic diversity Prezwalksi horses were native to central Asia. Thousands of these wild horses once roamed the grassy plains of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. They were discovered in 1879 by a Russian geographer and explorer Nikolay...
A new office building is set to rise in Prague’s Karlín district, replacing the site of an old cemetery discovered two years ago. This modern development will feature retail shops on the ground floor and offices above, along with event facilities capable of hosting up to 300 people. Coopera Development is constructing the new office complex, which will include three interconnected buildings designed by Bogle Architects. The reinforced concrete and steel structure will feature a façade of aluminum composite panels, reminiscent of the former factories, and a glazed ground floor. The development, named PernerKa, will be environmentally friendly. The seven-storey building will utilize a water-to-air heat pump to harness waste heat and incorporate special heads to save up to 50% of water usage. Water retention systems will be in place to irrigate green areas. PernerKa will offer 10,000 square meters of space on Pernerova Street. About 700 square meters on the ground floor will house shops, with a café in the lobby. The rest will be office space, with Coopera Development already securing tenants. The top three floors will be occupied by Actum Digital, a technology company, while Scott.Weber will take the two lower floors, providing coworking spaces for approximately...
This summer Prague will dress again with the colors of Colombia during the celebration of the 4th Colombian week. Various cultural, sports, gastronomic and other events will take place, which will introduce you to Colombian culture and traditions and will also introduce interesting personalities of the Colombian community living in the Czech Republic. Here it is one of the main events announced by the organizers so far: – 4° Festival de Comida y Música Colombiana – July 21, 2024 This is their annual festival celebrating Colombian cuisine and music. Attendees will have the opportunity to taste traditional Colombian dishes and enjoy live performances from local artists. It’s a vibrant celebration of our culture and an excellent opportunity for cultural exchange with the Czech community. Would you like us to write about your business? Find out more
More than half (53%) of Czech consumers are pessimistic about the country’s socio-economic future. However, more than two-thirds (68%) believe that their household’s financial situation will improve (or remain unchanged) in the coming year, a new study has found. The study, undertaken by STEM alongside KPMG, found that the percentage of Czech consumers that are looking ahead to the next year with ‘concern’ or ‘uncertainty’ has also increased, albeit slightly. Bad Mood ‘Persists’ “The bad mood still persists. Specifically, 53% of people think that the overall situation in the Czech Republic is not developing well,” commented STEM director Martin Buchtík. “However, the data on the financial situation of households indicate that we are out of the worst.” The survey showed improvement in the ability of households to develop savings in almost all demographics, except among those whose highest education level is primary school. In addition, banks continue to enjoy high public trust in the country, a level of trust that remains stable despite external shocks. Economic Growth “We expect economic growth to resume this year and in the coming years, but we will probably return to the 2019 economic level only this year,” added KPMG economist Adam Páleníček. “So, we...
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