LABOUR FORCE SAMPLE SURVEY (LFSS)

The labour force sample survey (LFSS) used by the CZSO is a source of information on the labour market. The survey provides information collected in households of respondents at the place of their residence. Methodology of indicators measured by the LFSS is in line with the definitions and recommendations of the International Labour Office (ILO). Thus the data may serve as a basis for direct international comparability of labour market characteristics in various countries. At the same time, the implementing methodology of Eurostat, which explains the contents of particular market characteristics, is respected. The size of the sample ensuring reliable estimates was about 0.7 per cent of the occupied dwellings in the CR. All the tables show average annual time series figures for the individual years to show developments in the labour market.

Labour force includes all persons aged 15+ who satisfy requirements for being classified to the category of employed or unemployed persons.

The employed are all persons who are aged 15+ and were in paid employment or self-employment (employed in their own business) in the reference week. Whether their work activity was permanent, temporary, seasonal or occasional, or their job was the only (main) or second (additional), or whether they were single or multiple jobholders, makes no difference. The category of the employed excludes persons on child-care (parental) leave, whose position is of a different character according to ILO methodology.

According to the ILO methodology, the unemployed are all persons aged 15+ who simultaneously met the following three conditions in the reference period:

• were not employed
• were actively seeking employment
• were ready to take up a job, i.e., were available for the execution of paid employment or employment in own business immediately or within fourteen days at the latest

Participation rate is the share of total labour force (the employed and the unemployed) in the total population aged 15+.

Employment rate is the ratio of the employed to all persons aged 15+.

CZ-ICSE: CZ-ICSE is based on the revised International Classification of Status in Employment – ICSE-93, approved by the 15th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in January 1993. CZ-ICSE is obligatory down to the four-digit level.

The data for 2002-2004 were converted to correspond to the population figures obtained from the final results of the Population and Housing Census 2001.

EMPLOYEES AND WAGES

The data on employees and wages are broken down geographically – i.e., by districts where reporting businesses have their head offices, - by the so-called enterprise methods. This means that a business with its lower organizational components located in other districts (works, plants, outlets, etc.) is classified to the district where its head office is. And all of its employees are classified according to the principal activity (CZ-NACE) of their business.

Notes on Tables 4-12 to 4-15. The data in these tables draw on the results produced by the processing of quarterly questionnaires and are shown for all persons included in the registered number of employees in businesses coming under the business sphere that employed 20+ individuals (irrespective of the number of employees in financial intermediation), including employees of unincorporated private entrepreneurs. The data concerning the non-business sphere refer to employees of government departments, semi-budgetary organizations (organizations partially financed from state and local budgets), and non-profit institutions (public beneficial organizations, health insurance companies, etc.) and included is also part of the Ministry of Defence of the CR and Ministry of the Interior of the CR.

The data listed in Table 4-28. are taken over from the Information system on Average Earnings of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the CR. The system contains data from a sample survey in businesses with 10+ employees. The data on the number of employees and average monthly gross wages do not include employees of some businesses not measured statistically and persons executing public office (e.g. deputies, senators, councillors exempt from their normal duties to hold public office only, judges, etc.)

Registered number of employees includes persons under employment con­tracts (both main and second jobs) and members of cooperatives having employment contract. It excludes females on maternity leave and child-care leave, homemakers, persons on parental leave, temporary members of the armed forces (including those on compulsory community service), apprentices, persons engaged by companies under contracts of work other than contracts of employment, etc.

Average registered number of employees per year is the arithmetic mean of twelve average monthly numbers of employees (calculated as the sum of daily numbers divided by calendar days in the month concerned).

Average gross monthly wage is the wage, excluding other personnel costs, per registered employee per month. Wages include components such as basic wages and salaries, bonuses and gratuities, wage and salary compensations, remunerations for being on call, etc. charged to be paid in the reference period. They are gross wages, i.e., prior to general health insurance and social security contributions, income tax advance payments, and other statutory deductions or deductions agreed with the employer.

UNEMPLOYMENT (according to records of employment offices)

The data on the number and structure of job applicants and on the vacancies are taken over from the Information System of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the CR.

Registered job applicants are citizens staying permanently in respective area, who have no formal job or similar attachment to an employer, are not self-employed, and have asked an employment office to find a job for them.

Registered job applicants available are the unemployed registered, who can immediately start to work upon an offer of a suitable job position having no objective obstacle preventing them from hiring.

Registered unemployment rate by old methodology, valid until 30 June 2004, is the ratio (%) of registered job applicants to the labour force available (i.e. the employed persons established by the LFSS plus registered job applicants).

Registered unemployment rate by new methodology, valid from 1 July 2004, is the ratio (%) of registered job applicants available to the total of the employed persons established by the LFSS and the number of working foreigners according to the records of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the registered job applicants available.

TREND IN THE MINIMUM WAGE
Effective as of 1 January 2005 the Government increased the minimum wage to CZK 7,185 per month (CZK 42.50 per hour).