Rates of employment, unemployment and economic activity - December 2024

The employment rate

The proportion of employed persons in the number of all persons aged 15–64 years reached 75.8% in December 2024. It increased by 0.8 percentage point (p.p.) compared to that in December 2023. The male employment rate was 81.7%; the female employment rate was 69.5%. The employment rate of persons aged 15–29 years was 41.3%, in the age group of 30–49 years it was 85.8%, and in the age group of 50–64 years it was 83.7%.

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 December 2024. It decreased by 0.1 percentage point, year-on-year. The male unemployment rate reached 2.2%; the female unemployment rate reached 3.3%.

“In December 2024, the unemployment rate remained below the three-percent threshold, i.e. well below the all-European average, which has been fluctuating just below six percent during several recent months,” 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 77.9%. It increased by 0.8 p. p. compared to that in December 2023. The male economic activity rate (83.5%) exceeded the female economic activity rate (71.9%) by 11.6 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 December 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.

Note: Starting from the news release for January 2025, data on employment rates broken down by age group (see the first paragraph) will be moved to a quarterly analysis called Employment and unemployment in the Czech Republic as measured by the Labour Force Sample Survey, in which this topic will be dealt with in more detail.