Rates of employment, unemployment and economic activity - August 2024

The employment rate

The proportion of employed persons in the number of all persons aged 15–64 years reached 75.1% in August 2024. It increased by 0.4 percentage point (p.p.) compared to that in August 2023. The male employment rate was 81.0%; the female employment rate was 68.9%. The employment rate of persons aged 15–29 years was 41.6%, in the age group of 30–49 years it was 85.4%, and in the age group of 50–64 years it was 83.0%.

The general unemployment rate

The percentage of the unemployed in the labour force, that is in the total number of the employed and the unemployed (that means economically active persons), reached 2.7% in August 2024. It remained unchanged year-on-year. The male unemployment rate reached 2.2%; the female unemployment rate reached 3.3%.

“August did not bring any surprise on the Czech labour market, either. The female unemployment rate continued to oscillate around 3.3 percent; the male one was even by one percentage point lower,” Dalibor Holý, Director of the Labour Market and Equal Opportunities Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office, comments on the results.

The economic activity rate

The percentage of the economically active in the total number of persons aged 15–64 years reached 77.2%. It increased by 0.4 p. p. compared to that in August 2023. The male economic activity rate (82.8%) exceeded the female economic activity rate (71.2%) by 11.5 p. p.

International comparability

All data presented in the News Release are seasonally adjusted. They apply to the age group of 15–64 years. They come from the Labour Force Sample Survey (LFSS) carried out by a network of interviewers of the CZSO in households and are different in terms of methodology from administrative data of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic on registered job applicants (namely the “Share of unemployed persons” indicator).

The LFSS has an internationally comparable methodology, which defines the employed and the unemployed in accordance with recommendations of the International Labour Organization. The CZSO regularly sends data from the LFSS to Eurostat, which prepares monthly press release on unemployment as for Member States of the EU, however, for the age group of 15–74 years. The unemployment rate in that age group (of the aged 15–74 years) was 2.6% in Czechia in August 2024.

In compliance with the international methodology for the LFSS, the survey is only carried out in private households; collective accommodation establishments as well as temporary shelters are not covered.

Tables 1 and 2 enclosed contain time series of basic indicators of the labour market and numbers of the employed and unemployed persons, starting in 1993.