Minister Rakušan: Czechia failing to retain foreign workers, a quarter leave within two years

Czechia is failing to retain foreign workers, especially qualified ones, with a quarter of the foreign workforce leaving the country within two years of arrival, Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan said on Thursday at the conference of the Central European branch of the Aspen Institute in Prague.

The inability to retain foreign workers affects the country's economic competitiveness. Low wages and relatively high costs play a role in the decision to stay or leave. At the end of the first half of this year, the Labour Office registered over 827,600 foreign employees. The number has doubled in the past seven years, since June 2017. Nonetheless, Czechia is one of the countries with the lowest unemployment in the European Union.