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Methodology - Employment and wages of women and men

The source of information on the labour market surveyed in the households of respondents is the Labour Force Sample Survey (LFSS). The methodology of indicators measured by the LFSS is in line with the definitions and recommendations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Therefore, the data may serve as a basis for direct international comparability of labour market characteristics in various countries. In every quarter of 2022, the sample included 23 thousand randomly selected dwellings on average in the whole territory of the Czech Republic (over 0.6% of all permanently occupied dwellings). The results of the sample survey were recalculated to the population of the Czech Republic. The sample size makes it possible to obtain reliable estimates of the characteristics of the labor market at the level of the republic and, with relatively sufficient reliability, also estimates of regional values.

The labour force includes all persons aged 15+ years who meet the criteria for being classified to the category of employed or unemployed persons.

The decisive criterion for surveyed characteristics of every respondent is the respondent’s actual activity on the labour market in the reference week. If a respondent stated that he/she had worked at least one hour in the reference week for wage, salary, or for other remuneration, he/she is strictly classified as a person in employment according to the ILO methodology.

The number of employed persons (the employed) includes all persons aged 15+ years who belonged to employees during the reference week, including members of producer cooperatives, own-account workers, employers, or unpaid contributing family workers. Apprentices, who receive wages, salaries, or other remuneration according to the same principle as other persons, are also included into the employed. Similarly students, homemakers, and other persons primarily engaged in non-economic activities, who were active in employment in the reference week, are also classified as the employed. Persons employed as professional members of the armed forces and persons on maternity leave who worked before taking maternity leave are included in the employed. On the other hand, the group of the employed does not include persons on parental leave – their position is of a different character compared to other persons with a formal job attachment.

Employers are those who need the performance of hired labor for their business activities. They hire labor on the labor market for payment in labor relations. Employers can be either legal entities or natural persons. This group mainly consists of natural persons, of legal persons this group includes only directors - business owners and persons of equal status to them. Employers have a self-employed position (self-employed).

Own-account workers are natural persons with a business license who do not employ other persons as part of their business. Persons working on their own account have a self-employed position (self-employed).

The unemployed are all persons aged 15+ years (without any upper age limit) who were simultaneously meeting all of the three basic conditions in the reference period as follows:

  • were jobless, i.e. they were neither employed for pay nor self-employed;
  • were seeking a job/employment in an active manner. “In an active manner” means the following activities: job seeking through a labour office, through private employment agencies, directly in enterprises, through relatives and acquaintances, by using advertisements, making steps to set up own business, by placing or updating their curriculum vitae on-line;
  • were ready to take a job, i.e. they were available to work in paid employment or self-employment immediately or within two weeks at the latest.

Besides these persons, persons who are not seeking employment, because they have already found one, but their commencement of work is fixed for some later date (within three months, at the latest), are also classified as the unemployed according to the Eurostat definition.

The economically inactive (economically inactive persons) are all children up to 15 years of age and persons aged 15+ years who do not meet the criteria to be included in the labour force. These are all persons who were not employed during the reference period and who do not fulfill three basic conditions of unemployment defined by ILO. Economically not active population includes e.g. children in pre-school age, persons attending various educational institutes, normally retired persons, long-term disabled or invalid persons etc. It includes also applicants for employment registered in labour office but not able to start a job in 14 days. Further this group includes persons on parental leave, unless they meet conditions for being classified as employed or unemployed.

The participation rate is constructed as the share of the total labour force in the total number of working-age persons and post-working-age persons (i.e. the population aged 15+ years).

The employment rate is the proportion of employed persons in the number of all persons aged 15+ years.

The general unemployment rate is an indicator calculated from the LFSS results and complying with international definitions and recommendations (ILO). It is constructed as the percentage of the number of unemployed persons in the total labour force.

Data on average wages broken down by sex, age, education or occupation are provided by structural wage statistics published by the Czech Statistical Office in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. It is created by merging of databases of the sample survey of the Information System on Average Earnings (ISAE) of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which covers the wage sphere, and of the administrative data source of the Salary Information System (ISP) of the Ministry of Finance, which exhaustively covers the salary sphere.

The data of the structural wage statistics are not comparable with the average wage determined through the CZSO's enterprise reporting. The ISAE and the ISP give information on individual employees, whereas the business surveys are focused on the registered numbers of employees and the volume of wages for whole businesses. The ISAE and ISP average wage is calculated in relation to the employee’s paid hours (it is free of any unpaid absence of the employee from work – e.g. due to illness, etc.). It also excludes employees whose number of contracted hours of work is less than 30 hours a week.

The median wage is the value of the employee’s wage in the middle of the wage distribution; it means that one half of wage values is below the median wage, while the other half is above it. The indicator gives a better picture of the wage level in a given category than the simple average wage (arithmetic mean).