Czech Unemployment Rose to 3.3%, While Number of Job Openings Decreased

Unemployment in the Czech Republic rose to 3.3 percent in July from 3.1 percent in June. At the end of the seventh calendar month, over 240,000 people were looking for a job.

On average, there are 0.8 applicants per vacant position in the Czech Republic. The Labor Office of the Czech Republic published the data on Monday, according to which the July increase in unemployment is an expected seasonal fluctuation.

At the end of July, there were 240,706 applicants for employment in the records of employment offices. It was 9,397 more than in June and about 31,500 less than last July.

At the end of this year’s first holiday month, there were 313,250 vacancies offered by employment offices. This is 6,150 fewer than there were available in June. This comes after pre-summer hiring in hospitality and tourist-focused jobs naturally slowed once the season started. In a year-on-year comparison, the number of vacant positions fell by almost 45,000.

According to the Labor Office, the increased unemployment in July is due to slowed hiring during company-wide summer holidays as well as the arrival of school graduates into the labor market.

“The development in the coming months will depend on the course of the war conflict in Ukraine, the number of newly registered job applicants from the ranks of Ukrainian citizens, the effects of the energy crisis on employers, the ongoing high inflation that increases production costs, or the current epidemic situation,” said the General director of the Labor Office of the Czech Republic, Viktor Najmon.

According to the sources of the office, a total of 97,238 citizens of Ukraine found work in the Czech Republic from the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine this February until the end of July.

But some of them have already returned home or left their jobs. By the end of July, 73,908 Ukrainians with temporary protection were working in the Czech Republic.

At the end of the first holiday month, the Ústí Region had the highest unemployment percentage at 5 percent. The Moravian-Silesian Region followed with an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent. On the contrary, the lowest unemployment remained in the Pardubice region, at 2.3 percent.

The situation has changed the most in Karlovy Vary. Compared to last July, the share of the unemployed fell by 1.4 percentage points to 3.6 percent, as people flock back to the famous spa town to escape the heat.