In October, the total number of job seekers decreased by 2,379 to 260,641 and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%. That is 4,849 more when compared to the same period of 2022. The unemployment rate of men and women decreased to 3.0% and 3.9%, respectively.
A month-on-month increase in the unemployment rate was recorded in 20 districts, with the highest increases in the districts of Jindřichův Hradec (by 4.3%), Jeseník (by 3.1%), Pelhřimov (by 2.7%), Strakonice (by 2.5%), Plzeň-South (by 2.4%), Mělník (by 2.0%), Kutná Hora (by 1.9%) and Plzeň-City (by 1.7%).
The unemployment rate decreased after two months of stagnation for the first time since June. It is at a similar level as last year and well below the EU average. This development is largely surprising, because GDP recorded both a quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year decline in Q3. The economy was struggling with lower household consumption and weaker demand, which had an adverse impact on most sectors, including industry, trade, transport, accommodation and hospitality. However, positive factors prevailed, such as decreasing inflation and new job opportunities, arising, as usual, in logistics, e-commerce and other similar sectors in the period leading to Christmas. It remains to be seen how the unemployment rate will be affected by further economic developments, the termination of fixed-term contracts, which has its greatest impact at the end of the year, and uncertainty of businesses about electricity costs due to the announced increase in the regulated components of the electricity price. If electricity costs increase significantly, this will naturally be reflected in payroll budgets, hiring cuts and layoffs.
As at 31 October 2023, the Czech Labour Office registered a total of 280,496 vacancies. That is 1,499 fewer than in the previous month and 16,864 fewer than in October 2022. On average, there were 0.9 job seekers per vacancy, with the highest numbers reported in the districts of Karviná (9.8), Bruntál (6.4), Jeseník (4.4), Děčín (4.3), Most (4.2), Ústí nad Labem (3.5), Opava (3.4) and Hodonín (3.3).
According to the latest available data, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate, processed by EUROSTAT for the purposes of international comparison, reached 2.7% in the Czech Republic in September, as compared to 5.9% in the EU27. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Czech Republic was 2.7%, compared to 6.0% in the EU27.
In the 2nd quarter of 2023, the average gross nominal monthly salary*) (hereinafter “average salary”) was CZK 43,193, which is CZK 3,101 (7.7%) higher than in the same period in 2022. Consumer prices rose by 11.1% during this period, and real wages fell by 3.1% as a result. The amount of salaries increased by 8.3%, and the number of employees grew by 0.6%. Compared to the previous quarter, the seasonally adjusted average salary grew by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter of 2023.
Compared to the same period of the previous year, the median salary (CZK 36,816) increased by 7.8%, which corresponds to CZK 39,847 for men and CZK 33,862 for women. Eighty percent of employees received salaries between CZK 19,320 and CZK 70,247.
*calculated to the number of employees in the national economy
source: MPSV, ČSÚ, ec.europa.eu