Rates of employment, unemployment and economic activity - May 2023

The proportion of employed persons in the number of all persons aged 15–64 years reached 75.9% in May 2023. It increased by 0.7 percentage point (p.p.) compared to that in May 2022. The male employment rate was 81.6%; the female employment rate was 70.0%. The employment rate of persons aged 15–29 years was 42.2%, in the age group of 30–49 years it was 86.9%, and in the age group of 50–64 years it was 83.6%.

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 2.5% in May 2023. It stayed the same, year-on-year. The male unemployment rate reached 2.1%; the female unemployment rate reached 3.0%.

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 0.7 p. p. compared to that in May 2022. The male economic activity rate (83.3%) exceeded the female economic activity rate (72.1%) by 11.2 p. p.

“While the previous two months brought small increases in unemployment, May numbers saw a correction back to February values. A fast growing female economic activity (participation) rate is still a significant recent trend; it exceeded 72% for the first time ever,” Dalibor Holý, Director of the Labour Market and Equal Opportunities Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office, comments on the results.

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 2.4% in the Czech Republic in May 2023.

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. Due to those reasons, coming of war refugees from the Ukraine will, for the time being, be reflected only marginally in the trends.

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

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Notes:
Responsible head at the CZSO: Dalibor Holý, Director of the Labour Market and Equal Opportunities Statistics Department, phone number: (+420) 274 052 694, e-mail: dalibor.holy@csu.gov.cz
Contact person: Petra Drobilíková, Unit for Labour Forces, Migration, and Equal Opportunities, phone number: (+420) 274 052 972, e-mail: petra.drobilikova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: CZSO, Labour Force Sample Survey (LFSS), which is conducted in selected private households; collective accommodation establishments are not included in the survey. The LFSS results have been grossed up to the total population of the Czech Republic using data of the population statistics as at 1 January 2022 and the prediction of the population development in the following eight months.
Methodological notes: https://csu.gov.cz/zam_vsps
End of data collection: 20 June 2023
End of preliminary data processing: 27 June 2023
Next News Release will be published on:  1 August 2023