Skilled Labour in Czechia

Radio Praha:

Decreasing unemployment resulting in lack of skilled labour

In May, the unemployment rate was the lowest in almost three years. Down to 6.4 percent, the number of people looking for jobs dropped by more than 19,000 compared to the preceding month. While on average there were some 3 applicants for every vacancy, just a year ago there were almost double. But this positive development also has a down side. I spoke to economic analyst Marketa Sichtarova of Next Finance:
"The decreasing unemployment rate is just a result of a very high GDP growth, which exceeds six percent per years and this means that companies are strong and are able to create new jobs. But the decreasing unemployment is now also a problem for Czech companies because these companies are facing a shortage of new employees."

If this is a new phenomenon, how serious is the situation?

"Well, it depends on the city or region. In Prague, the situation is quite serious and when you walk in the centre you can see that every second shop has posted an announcement that it is looking for new employees. But it is also quite serious in regions where unemployment is still high and exceeding 10 percent. That is because it is difficult to find the type of employee that the employer really needs from the point of view of qualification."

What sectors are the hardest to fill - in what sectors are we lacking skilled labour the most?

"I think that it is still quite difficult to find people who can work well with computers. It is just a matter of re-qualification and so it is a problem of a lack of willingness to learn new thinks. So, some companies have to hire people from abroad - Poland or Slovakia. But in some cases the language barrier can be problematic so not every company is able to solve this problem by hiring people from abroad."