Rates of employment, unemployment and economic activity - February 2020

Unemployment Rate Was 2.0% in February

The employment rate of the aged 15–64 years (the share of the employed persons in the age group 15–64 years, as percentage), seasonally adjusted, reached 74.9% in February 2020 and decreased by 0.6 percentage point (p.p.) compared to that in February 2019. The male employment rate was 81.7%; the female employment rate was 67.8%, both seasonally adjusted. The employment rate of persons aged 15–29 years, seasonally adjusted, was 47.4%, in the age group 30–49 years it attained 88.2%, and in the age group 50–64 years it got to 75.5%.

The general unemployment rate of the aged 15–64 years (the share of the unemployed in the labour force, that is in the total number of the employed and the unemployed (that means economically active persons), as percentage), seasonally adjusted, reached 2.0% in February 2020 and in fact stagnated, year-on-year. The male unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, attained 1.8%; the female unemployment rate reached 2.3%.

The economic activity rate of the aged 15–64 years (the share of the number of the economically active in the total number of persons of this age group, as percentage), seasonally adjusted, reached 76.4% and declined by 0.6 p.p. compared to that in February 2019. Following the seasonal adjustment, the male economic activity rate (83.2%) exceeded the female economic activity rate by 13.8 p.p.

“The favourable figures for February are the last data before the state of emergency was announced in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. Undoubtedly, the situation will have a considerable impact on the labour market and the Czech Statistical Office will do its best to describe it. Understandably, our interviewers have been prevented from visiting households in person; phone calls and electronic ways of survey are in use from now on. I would like to ask all of the addressed to continue to cooperate with interviewers of the CZSO,” Dalibor Holý, Director of Labour Market and Equal Opportunities Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office, said.

Eurostat, in its press release, publishes the monthly unemployment rate, identical in terms of the methodology applied, but for the age group 15–74 years. In the Czech Republic, the general unemployment rate for the aged 15–74 years in February 2020 was also 2.0%, while the data are based on the Labour Force Sample Survey results for the corresponding month.

The tables enclosed contain methodologically consistent time series of basic indicators of the labour market, and seasonally adjusted absolute numbers of the employed persons and of the unemployed ones, respectively, starting in 1993.

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Notes:
Responsible head at the CZSO: Dalibor Holý, Director of Labour Market and Equal Opportunities Statistics Department, phone: +420 274052694, e-mail: dalibor.holy@czso.cz
Contact person: Ilona Mendlová, Labour Market and Equal Opportunities Statistics Department, phone: +420 274054380, e-mail: ilona.mendlova@czso.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 2019 and the prediction of the population development in the following fourteen months.
Time series are updated in the course of seasonal adjustment as the whole series.
End of data collection /End of preliminary data processing: 20 March 2020 / 26 March 2020
Next News Release shall be published on: 30 April 2020

Published: 01.04.2020
The data are valid as of the release date of the publication.