Unemployment in CzechRep up at 9.8 pct in Jan

In January 2009, unemployment reached 6.8 percent. The data released today are in line with analysts' expectations.

Employment offices registered 574,226 job seekers at end-January, a growth of 35,090 from end-December 2009 and an increase of 176,165 against January 2009.

The number of job seekers ready to start worth immediately rose by 34,681 month-on-month to 562,409. Year-on-year, the figure increased by 178,567.

A total of 88,076 job seekers newly registered at employment offices in January, a rise of 15,726 compared with December 2009 and a growth of 200 compared with January 2009.

Employment offices offered 31,557 vacancies at end-January, which was 630 more month-on-month. Compared with January last year, the number dropped by 36,937.

There were 18.2 applicants per a vacancy on average at employment offices. The number of applicants per a vacancy was the highest in the district of Decin (77.3), followed by Znojmo (74.5), Teplice (71), Karvina (66.8), Trebic (66.4) and Prostejov (65).

Month-on-month, all 77 employment offices in the Czech Republic registered an increase in the jobless rate. The biggest growth was reported in the districts of Jindrichuv Hradec (15.8 percent), Jesenik (14.2 percent), Znojmo (12.3 percent),Pisek (11.6 percent), Chrudim (11 percent), Pelhrimov (10.7 percent) and Plzen-north (10.5 percent).

The unemployment rate was higher than the national average in 48 districts. Of this, the rate was the highest in Jesenik, Znojmo, Hodonin, Most, Bruntal and Decin.

In contrast, unemployment was the lowest in the districts of Prague-east, Prague, Prague-west and Mlada Boleslav.

Unemployment among men increased to 9.3 percent. The share of unemployed women rose to 10.6 percent.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz