Jobless rate drops for first time in 15 months

The Czech jobless rate has fallen by 0.2 percent ending a 15-month-long rise in unemployment. Official data released on Friday put the current rate at 9.7 percent in March, down from 9.9 one month earlier. The country had seen a steady rise in unemployment as the global financial crisis hit a year and a half ago. A little more than 556,000 people in the Czech Republic remain out of work. Analysts have said that the coming months could see further slight improvement but expect that the turnaround on the labor market will be slow.

Separate data by the Czech Statistical Office, meanwhile, has confirmed a pick-up in the industrial sector, which has been growing for the last three months. Overall, the Finance Ministry expects the Czech economy to rebound with 1.3 percent annual growth this year, after it contracted by a little over 4 percent in 2009.