Unemployment in the Czech Republic reached 3.5 percent in October, remaining at the same level as in September. The number of job seekers fell by 588 to 255,792 compared to the previous month. The number of vacancies on offer declined by around 8,700 to 297,360, the Czech Labour Office said on Tuesday.

The country’s unemployment rate was 3.4 percent last October. The labor offices registered 251 689 job seekers a year ago, roughly 4 100 fewer than this year. According to the Czech Labour Office, unemployment is likely to rise in the coming months due to a decline in seasonal work.

The situation in the labor market will be affected mainly by the impact of the energy crisis on employers. It may also be affected by the course of the war in Ukraine or the current epidemic situation.

On Tuesday, the office said that according to available sources, 148 607 refugees from Ukraine had obtained work in the Czech Republic since the outbreak of the conflict until the end of October. About three-quarters of them are women.

Some Ukrainians granted temporary protection have already returned home or left their jobs.

“It is good news that unemployment in the Czech Republic remains at a shallow level and there are no major year-on-year fluctuations,” said Labour and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL).

“In the long term, the number of unemployed people in the Czech Republic is the lowest in the EU. Moreover, companies are still demanding new employees across all sectors. This currently means an important certainty for citizens and our economy,” Jurečka added.

He would like to provide more support for working seniors, for example, by giving them preferential part-time jobs.

According to Viktor Najmon, director general of the Czech Labour Office, employers are looking for workers in the manufacturing and construction industries. They are looking for skilled artisans in the long term.

“At the same time, they are still interested in seasonal workers in areas such as agriculture, forestry, fishing, or, for example, livestock and food production and trade,” Najmon said.

As in the previous month, unemployment remained highest in October in the Ústí nad Labem region, where it was 5.3 percent, and in the Moravian-Silesian region (4.9 percent).

“These regions also had the highest share of unemployed persons last year. This corresponds to their long-term economic situation,” the Labour Office said. On the other hand, the lowest unemployment rate is still in the Pardubice Region, at 2.5 percent.

There are even more significant differences between districts. The best situation is in the Prague-East district, where 1.5 percent of people are unemployed. On the other hand, the highest share of the unemployed is registered in the Karviná region, which is 8.2 percent.

There are almost ten applicants for every vacancy. On the other hand, in the districts of Praha-východ and Mladá Boleslav, there are only 0.2 applicants per vacant position. The national average is 0.9 job seekers per vacancy.

Of the total number of registered jobseekers, 55.7 percent were women, representing 142,589 unemployed.

The average unemployed age was 42.9 in October, compared to 43.1 last year.

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