Czech unemployment causes growing concern
The number of jobless people in the Czech Republic has been growing steadily despite various pro-employment policies implemented by the government. On Monday, the Czech Labour ministry released the latest data. Vladimir Tax reports on the latest developments.
The unemployment rate is likely to hit the ten-percent mark much earlier than expected - possibly in January next year. Originally, analysts had predicted that the unemployment would reach ten percent some time in the middle of next year.
The lowest unemployment was traditionally in Prague and Central Bohemia - between 3 and 4 percent. On the other hand, the greatest number of jobless people - around 20 percent - was registered in some of the coal-mining and heavy industry regions in North Bohemia and North Moravia, where a number of coal mines and steel-mills were closed in the past decade but very little new opportunities have emerged.
The problem is not simple to solve for several reasons, the most serious one being the limited territorial mobility of labour due to the non-functioning housing market caused by the continuing administrative rent regulation. Another problem, a historical one, is that under the communist regime, miners received disproportionately higher wages than other employees and are reluctant to take less paid jobs. Experts say what is needed is to make the unemployment-hit remote regions more attractive and more accessible for foreign investors.
