Unemployment in Czechia rose to 4.3% in January, a 0.2 percentage point increase from December’s 4.1%. Altogether, 320,516 job applicants were registered with the country’s Labour Office in the traditionally high unemployment month of the year.

 “During January 2025, we have witnessed a solid demand on the largest Czech job portals Jobs.cz and Prace.cz,” commented Tomáš Ervín Dombrovský, an analyst of Almar Career Czechia, in the press release published by the Czech Labour Office.

Year on year, the unemployment figure was 0.3 pp higher, while it was also higher by 0.4 pp in comparison to January 2023.  

The districts of Most in northwest Bohemia and Bruntál and Karviná in the northeastern Moravian-Silesian region registered the highest unemployment rates of above 8% each.

Head of the Labour Office Daniel Krištof pointed out a new online database of detailed unemployment data, including socio-demographic data, handicapped and foreign nationals employed in Czechia, and available separately since February.

“Thanks to these data, we will know much better and in a more exact way who in Czechia is threatened by long-term unemployment,” Krištof commented.

Analysts surveyed by the Czech Press Agency (CTK) warn that the country’s labour market is cooling down, although they expect the unemployment level to remain the lowest in the EU.

“Besides the seasonal factor, signalled lay-offs across sectors are reflected in the figures this year,” the CEO of the Czech branch of the Randstad HR company, Martin Jánský, was quoted as saying by CTK.

“The level of unemployment is likely to grow slightly in the coming months, considering our and German economic situation,” he added.