THE LABOUR MARKET SITUATION IN THE VISEGRAD COUNTRIES

Abstract

The study presents the labour market situation in the Visegrad Group countries, the Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The labour markets of the four countries are very similar. Due to economic cycles, their unemployment rates vary in a similar way. In the late 2010s, all countries experienced labour shortages. This is partly due to the fact that labour-intensive sectors still predominate in all of them, especially the car manufacturing sector. It is also an important fact that the labour force from the region plays an important role at EU level, millions of workers from the region taking up jobs in Western Member States. But there are also differences between the four countries. Poland, due to its size, has the largest number of workers in Western Member States. Thanks to its economic development, the Czech Republic is in the best position in terms of employment. In the late 2010s, employment continued to improve and the trend was only slightly worsened by the Covid 19 pandemic.