Employment and Unemployment in the Czech Republic as Measured by the Labour Force Sample Survey

Since 2002 the LFS questionnaire has been fully harmonised with standard of Eurostat and has corresponded to the contents of Council Regulation (EU) no. 577/98. Nevertheless, the content and structure of Eurostat´s standard is still developing. In this context the CZSO executed other changes in questionnaire with effect from 1 January 2003 while the section of questions on attained education of respondents and mainly on lifelong learning in the period of their economic active life was extended. This procedure claimed a modification of array of questions and possible answers and it proved in the further significant increase of the questionnaire content. However, the content and formal structure of publication were kept as it was in last years and they enable good orientation with respect to the publications for previous quarters. At the same time the continuity and consistence of statistical data were ensured in the required time sequence. The changes in definition of particular characteristics were used when recounting the relevant data (section V.).

On 1 January 2000, a new territorial structure of the Czech Republic, dividing the country into 14 Regions (“higher territorial administrative units”), became effective based on Constitutional Act No. 347/97 Coll. In this context and for statistical and analytical needs, as well as for the needs of the European Commission, eight statistical territorial units (Areas) were defined within the Czech Republic in compliance with the Resolution of Cabinet of the CR No. 707/1998. The territorial structure of the Czech Republic, which complies with the system of NUTS (La Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques) used in the EU member countries, can be seen from the maps in the Technical Notes. The above change has been taken into account in this quarterly LFSS publication, which gives an insight into the labour market at all the basic levels, i.e. NUTS 1 - the Czech Republic, NUTS 2 - statistical Areas and NUTS 3 - Regions.

The LFSS concentrates on households living in dwellings chosen at random. It addresses all persons living usually in the dwellings, disregarding the type of their stay there (permanent, temporary or non-registered). The exception are temporary members of the armed forces who are surveyed, for practical reasons, at their residences before they left for the army. In persons under 15, only basic data are asked for: relationship to the head of household, age, sex, nationality and ethnicity-. Persons 15+ are supposed to answer additional questions concerning their status in the labour market (which does not apply to temporary members of the armed forces). The survey does not cover persons living in collective accommodation establishments for a long period of time, which is why data on certain population groups (foreign nationals living and working in the CR in particular) are rather scarce. According to Eurostat, such data can be retrieved from administrative sources or acquired via a separate survey taken outside the LFSS.

In the 4th quarter 2003, the sample comprised almost 25 thousand dwellings on the territory of the Czech Republic (0.6 % of all dwellings permanently lived in), in which almost 62 thousand respondents of all age groups were surveyed, including more than 52 thousand respondents aged 15 or more. This sample size makes it possible to get very reliable estimates of labour market characteris-tics at the national level and sufficiently reliable regional estimates.

All data surveyed in LFSS were reweighed on the age structure of population which was projected for midpoints of particular quarters on the base of definite demography at 31 December 2001 and 2002. For the projection there were considered the natural and mechanical movements of population in the course of 2002 and 2003 years. The mentioned method of recounts corresponds the best to the group of persons involved in the survey (permanently living population). Similarly the results of LFSS for particular quarters 2002 in time series (section V) were retrospectively recounted in according to the final demography.
The LFSS is a continuous survey, whose results are evaluated and released on a quarterly basis. The results are released two months after the end of the reference quarter. In the context of the unification of content of national questionnaire and list of questions obligatory for Member States of EU, the content of this publication will be changed steadily.