Czech Labour Market Research Articles

'The Plan Is No Plan': Ontological Security and Resilience of Ukrainian Refugees in the Czech Labour Market

'The Plan Is No Plan': Ontological Security and Resilience of Ukrainian Refugees in the Czech Labour Market

Employers, recruitment and activation programmes experimental evidence from the Czech labour market

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the impact of selected characteristics of jobseekers on employers’ decisions regarding potential hires (direct and probabilistic signals). The main focus of the study is to test the impact of jobseekers’ participation in selected active labour market programmes on employers’ hiring decisions for three positions: unskilled worker, skilled worker and administrative employee. Other characteristics tested include age, gender, presence of children in the household, state of health, experience of short- and long-term unemployment and indebtedness. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses data from a representative survey of employers with five or more employees in the Czech Republic. The survey was conducted in December 2020 using stratified random sampling, combining online questionnaires and personal interviews. The study includes 1,040 employers and uses the factorial survey experiment (FSE) design. Findings The results of the FSE suggest that the perceived positive impact of completing one of the activation programmes depends on the position for which the candidate is being recruited. While for the unskilled job category, the completion of any of the tested schemes (training, subsidised jobs or public works) had a positive effect; for the skilled job category, only the training and subsidised jobs schemes had a positive effect; and for the administrative job category, public works programme even had a negative effect. Research limitations/implications A somewhat limiting factor in the context of this study seems to be the definitions of the positions tested (unskilled and skilled workers and administrative staff). The decision-making of the respondents was somewhat restricted by such broadly defined categories. Typically, studies with FSE designs have a focus on a specific sector of the economy, which allows for a better definition of the positions or jobs under test. The relationship between position and the impact of individual characteristics is clearly a matter for further research. Practical implications The results of the study confirm that completion of the activation programme, as well as other candidate characteristics, constitute differentiating signals for employers that influence their hiring decisions. At the same time, there is evidence that the training programme and the subsidised jobs programme are effective in terms of increasing participants’ chances of employment. Originality/value The demand side should be included in the evaluation of activation policies. The design of the FSE provides an appropriate way to test the impact of activation measures on the decision-making of employers.

Comparing Innovative ‘Chosen Training’ with ‘Standard Training’ in Czechia: How Did the New Program Help?

This paper evaluates the active labour market policy instrument called ‘chosen training’ (in Czech zvolené rekvalifikace), introduced to the Czech labour market policy in 2012. This new instrument allows the registered unemployed much more freedom to choose their supposed future career path by selecting the preferred profession for training and preferred training provider than traditional standard training programs. The added value of this paper is in the intentional linking of the provision of new measures with the assessment of impacts. The methodology of this text is based on quantitative program assessment. We used PES administrative data OK Práce for programmes implemented in 2016 and tracked the outcomes for 2016-2020. We compare a new instrument with more traditional training programs that continue to be provided alongside the new tool. We concluded that chosen training provided better results than standard training, and we addressed some of the reasons behind the perceived difference.

Sectors on the Czech Labour Market

Abstract This paper deals with the situation on the Czech labour market from the point of view of the sectors, namely Agriculture and Mining Sector, Manufacturing Industry, Energy, Construction Sector, Service Sector Requiring Mostly Personal Contact, Service Sector Rather without Personal Contact and Service Sector Usually Provided by the Public Sector. Wages and salaries together constitute the investigated variable. The main aim is not only to capture the wage and salary level in individual sectors, but an equally important objective is the construction of models of the entire distribution of wages and salaries in individual sectors. Special attention is paid to employees of individual sectors, separated into men and women, whose remuneration for work is at the level of the minimum wage. An important aim is to determine the most frequent occupations of the CZ-ISCO classification in individual distinguished sectors, while this classification codes are considered for the first three digits. Important attention is paid to the representation of foreign nationals in the position of employees in individual sectors, separated into men and women. Three-parametric lognormal curves are used in the construction of wage and salary distribution models. The amount of the minimum gross monthly wage valid on January 1 of the previous year represented the beginning of the curves, the other two parameters were estimated using the maximum likelihood method. Accuracy of lognormal curves is evaluated using Akaike and Bayes information criterion. The results show that the highest levels of wages and salaries are mainly achieved by men in the Service Sector Rather without Personal Contact. In all five monitored sectors, the level of wages and salaries of women is lower than the level of wages and salaries of men. The overall distribution of women’s wages and salaries is more skewed, with higher skewness, but with lower level and variability compared to the overall distribution of men’s wages and salaries.

Model and Specifics of Generation Z Entry onto the Czech Labour Market

Model and Specifics of Generation Z Entry onto the Czech Labour Market

Za stejnou práci stejná odměna? Genderová rovnost v odměňování v různých kontextech trhu práce

Although international comparisons point to the gender pay gap (GPG) as a significant problem in the Czech labour market, until recently the GPG has not been the subject of deeper research or political attention. Using linked employer–employee data, the article answers the question of whether men and women were paid an equal wage for equal work in 2005–2020 and what part of the total GPG is caused by the segregation of women and men into different occupations, workplaces, and jobs. We also pose these questions separately for the public and private spheres, for selected industries, and for workplaces according to size. Throughout the monitored period, the GPG for equal work is around 10% and another roughly one-half of total GPG is caused by gender segregation. There has been a slight decrease since 2018, especially in workplaces with more than 5000 employees, where, however, the significance of women’s segregation into lower-paid positions is growing. The research confirmed that in more regulated, and therefore more transparent, contexts, such as the public sphere and in large workplaces (but also in small companies with up to 50 employees), the GPG for equal work is smaller than elsewhere. The results point to the need to systematically monitor the GPG and increase the transparency of remuneration systems in the workplace. In connection with the GPG, it will also be necessary to analyse the organisational processes that lead to women’s segregation into occupations, workplaces, and jobs that have lower wages, as well as the growing precarity of the Czech labour market.

Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of expectations and needs of engineering students and graduates: a case study at the University of West Bohemia

Abstract A good command of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) among Czech engineers seems to be of crucial importance since the engineering field has been developing rapidly and the Czech labour market is becoming increasingly international (Eurostat 2020). The authors of this article, who supervise the ESP courses offered to the students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FST) at the University of West Bohemia (UWB) in Pilsen (Czech Republic), attempt to meet the changing needs of the engineering field by conducting needs analyses among students, university graduates and prospective employers, and keeping their ESP courses’ syllabi up-to-date and relevant to their engineering students. This paper presents a comparative analysis of a questionnaire that was distributed in the year 2021 among UWB engineering students and graduates. Having analysed the responses that dealt with graduates’ needs and students’ expectations of using ESP in a workplace, the authors noticed several discrepancies between the answers they received from the students and those they received from the graduates. Based on the analysis, a hypothesis that current students sometimes have misconceptions about their future work life has been formulated. To confirm this hypothesis, in the next stage of the research, selected students and graduates are to be interviewed to gather additional information. The authors also wish to examine this hypothesis by having prospective engineering employers reply to the same survey questions.

The ins and outs of Central European unemployment

ABSTRACT We examine the role of unemployment inflows and outflows in contributing to unemployment cyclicality in Czechia and Poland, using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, and a three-state model of unemployment variance decomposition. We find that the labour market fluidity is higher in Poland than in Czechia, with Polish workers moving in and out of unemployment more frequently than their Czech counterparts. For both countries, the upward unemployment dynamics was during 2008–2011 driven by counter-cyclical increases in the job-separation rate, rather than by pro-cyclical declines in the job-finding rate. The inflow-outflow split was nonetheless more balanced in Czechia. The two economies further diverged across 2015–2018: Czech unemployment declined prevailingly due to diminishing job separations, while in Poland it was mostly due to improving job-finding prospects. This signals a deeper insider-outsider fragmentation of the Czech labour market, even during the period of economic expansion.

Employer of Last Resort for the Czech Republic

This article simulates a programme called Employer of Last Resort, and analyses its potential impact in the Czech Republic. The design of the programme guarantees perfectly inelastic demand for labour at a given wage level. In practice, the state would offer a job to anyone willing to work in order to eliminate involuntary unemployment, reduce poverty and income inequality and secure stable growth. My aim is to estimate hypothetical effects on the main objectives and calculate fiscal demands if the programme was launched on the Czech labour market. The results suggest that the programme could significantly reduce unemployment and decrease income inequality. On the other hand, it would have limited impact on income poverty. The gross wage costs of implementing the Employer of Last Resort programme in the Czech Republic are in all constructed scenarios below 1% of the gross domestic product and further calculations suggest that the total net costs could even be negative.

Gender Pay Gap in the Czech Republic - Its Evolution and Main Drivers

The study estimates the size of the gender pay gap (GPG) for the Czech Republic in the years 2006-2017 using data from the EU-SILC survey. The size of the GPG (and the related variables) remains relatively time-invariant with a statistically weak relation to the business cycle. Using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, we found out that the unexplained part of the GPG amounts to 50% of the whole GPG (on average) and only one third of the GPG is caused by an endowment effect or an interaction between the endowment effect and the coefficient effect. Selection bias plays a statistically insignificant role in terms of the GPG formation and explanation. Parenthood is the most important driver of the GPG. For parents, the GPG is about 30 percentage points higher than the one for non-parents. Women are able to narrow the GPG created by the effect of motherhood and reach original unexplained levels of approximately 15% after reaching the age of 50 and higher. Besides parenthood, there is no other demographic characteristic that has any substantial impact on the formation and persistence of the GPG. The GPG is most pronounced for the lowest- and the highest-earning quantiles, indicating the existence of a glass ceiling and a sticky floor on the Czech labour market.

Contemporary Czech migration policy: ‘Labour, not people’?

AbstractThis paper offers an analysis of the Czech migration policy since the so‐called European Union (EU) migration crisis in 2015 and its key instruments when it comes to migrant workers from third (non‐EU) countries. On the basis of semi‐structured interviews with 80 experts on various aspects of migration policymaking, we identified three key features of Czech migration policymaking: (i) perception of migration as a threat, (ii) orientation on temporary labour migration and (iii) lack of coherent and systematic conceptual approach towards migration. Jointly, these features explain a central paradox of the contemporary Czech migration policy: the contradiction between a strong anti‐immigration political discourse and the actual numbers of immigrants that has been rising steadily. Similarly to other European countries, there has been a growing tendency towards selectiveness in Czech migration policy, manifested in recent instruments specifically focused on attracting highly qualified migrants. However, the selection criteria are mainly based on the country of origin, and the quotas for incoming migrants reflect the existing administrative capacities and short‐term needs of the current Czech labour market for low‐ and middle‐qualified professionals rather than long‐term economic goals and demographic needs. Since the global economic recession (2008–2010), Czech migration policies have still not genuinely considered the fact that it is people, rather than just ‘labour’, who come to the Czech Republic.

Military Recruitment and Czech Labour Market

The article presents an empirical analysis of the relation between recruitment in the all-volunteer Czech Armed Forces and selected economic indicators, including actual economic performance, situation on the domestic labour market and development of defence expenditures based on data for the period 2005-2019. The relation between military recruitment and economic performance was examined using values of GDP and GDP dynamics (GDP index). General unemployment rate, the economic activity index1 and the military-to-general average wage ratio were used to analyse the relation of military recruitment and situation on the domestic labour market. The relation between military recruitment and defence expenditures was examined based on general defence burden (share of defence expenditures in GDP), state sector defence burden (share of defence expenditures in state budget expenditures) and year‑on‑year changes in defence expenditures.

The Czech Labour Market: Adaptation of Young People to the Advent of Industry 4.0

The focus of the paper was to conduct an analysis of the selected qualitative and quantitative aspects of the labour market and the potential ability of the young generation to adapt to the new conditions of their prospective employment. The primary data were obtained in the form of a questionnaire survey. The total of 2,817 respondents were contacted via email containing a research hyperlink. The respondents were secondary school students studying in the Czech Republic. The obtained data were collected in Excel and further processed by statistical methods, the Pearson test using χ quadrate. The option of choosing several occupations was evaluated by means of the so-called professional specialisation index. Secondary data were used to determine the development of trends on the Czech labour market in the current conditions of the Industry 4.0 onset. The respondents most often chose occupations in the fields of technology, industry and construction out of the eleven occupational areas offered. More than a quarter of respondents chose their preferred profession in this area. This is a positive finding in terms of the focus of the economy on Industry 4.0.

Returns to bachelor’s and master’s degree in tertiary education: the case of the Czech Republic after the Bologna Process

The primary objective of this study was to analyse the development of the effect of the bachelor’s and master’s tertiary degree on both respondents’ wage and socioeconomic status in the Czech labour market ten years after the Bologna Process. For the purposes of the study, structural modelling was applied using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC, 2010–2017) and Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC, 2011/12) data. The results revealed that despite a slightly decreasing direct effect of the master’s degree on wages, the association between the master’s degree and socioeconomic status intensified. Compared to that, the bachelor’s degree exhibited a stable direct effect on wages but a decreasing effect on socioeconomic status. While relatively stable overall returns to tertiary education can be supposed based on total effects, the channels through which the stability is reached may differ for the bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Global market opportunities: analysis of the foreign language websites in the Czech economy in the context of the number of it professionals

This paper analyses the use and management of web portals of the Czech industries. This paper investigates which industries have the highest shares of foreign language portals. This share is compared to the number of hired IT professionals. This paper is based on the thesis that competing in global markets requires skilled labour force in the form of IT specialist. The analysis will be split into two parts because the management of web portals can be done in-house or outsourced. The statistical evaluation will be based on the contingency table analysis and detailed summary statistics. Foreign language web portals are essential to world market opportunities. Czech labour market provides only a limited number of IT specialist to hire. Results suggest that there are differences between industries (services, trade, manufacturing) in the management of web portals (in-house vs. outsourcing) and the number of IT specialist depends on the use of foreign language web portals. The outsourcing of international management of web portals or joining the global value chains is starting to be a more affordable and interesting option because the labour costs of IT specialist are raising in the Czech labour market.

OPINIONS ON MANAGING POSTMILLENNIALS BY MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Based on the authors' scientific cooperation and research results the goal of the paper is to define and discuss opinions on management and managing people of postmillennials on the base of today´s university students of management on the Czech labour market. The paper is based on the analysis of available scientific literature and the results of the authors' questionnaire survey focused on university students' expectations about the future management. The survey was conducted in years 2017 - 2018. The respondents were full-time and part time bachelor's and master's students of the College of Regional Development in Prague, the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies of the Czech Technical University in Prague and the Department of Andragogy and educational management of the Faculty of Education of the Charles University, Prague. The relevant data were obtained from 690 students. The data analysis was based on the calculation of relative frequencies and the evaluation of the dependence of responses on gender and age using contingency tables, chi-square tests of independence and sign schemes. The results indicate that part of today's generation of university students studied management have different expectation and approaches to manage and to be manage, mainly in team work, working hours and leisure time.

Longitudinal and spatial perspectives on the mismatch of tertiary educated migrant workers in the Czech labour market: The case of Ukrainians

Abstract The topic of an education-occupation mismatch of tertiary educated migrant workers in receiving countries is an important issue in contemporary research in international migration, especially in the context of growing international economic competition. In this article, we analyse the level of mismatch of tertiary educated migrant workers in the Czech labour market, with a particular focus on Ukrainian workers. Using a unique set of statistical data, several conclusions can be drawn from a longitudinal approach, as well as multiple regression analysis in order to identify possible determinants of the mismatch at a district level. First, the mismatch of tertiary educated migrants does exist and is growing over time. Second, it seems that the level of mismatch is higher in economically progressive districts with higher numbers of qualified domestic and foreign workers, which creates a higher level of competition in the labour market. As a result, a relatively higher share of tertiary educated migrant workers end up over-educated in professions they find in the secondary labour market in these districts. Using the example of Ukrainians, the progression of tertiary educated migrants into the Czech labour market over time faces rather limited vertical mobility, with a slight progression to more skilled occupations. This can be related to the complexity of factors from individual to institutional levels of analysis.

Labour Market in the Czech Republic: Dsge Approach

Abstract This paper deals with the comparison of two versions of the DSGE model, supplemented with labour market frictions, based on different data used. One of the data sets has been pre-filtered with the HP filter (lambda set to 1) to get rid of any noise and the other with the original data series with measurement errors allowed. I compare the models with the following tools: parameters estimation, impulse response analysis, standard deviation and cross-correlations and recursive forecast. I also present the historical shock decomposition of the labour market variables to provide the explanation of the development in the Czech labour market, which is considered the most efficient labour market in Europe of the last couple of years with the lowest unemployment rate.

Efektivita trhu práce ve světle opatření konceptu flexikurity: příklad České republiky a Švédska v období 20062015

The paper is aimed at assessing efficiency of adopted measures of the concept of flexicurity in Sweden and Czech Republic in 2006-2015. It examines hypothesis that the matching process can be made more efficient by increasing the labour market flexibility. The Beveridge curve depicting the relationship between the unemployment and job vacancies is used to demonstrate a change in efficiency of labour market policies. The correlation analysis is used to address possible reasons for weaknesses of active labour market policies. Research findings show a better efficiency of the matching process in a rigid labour market, with the hypothesis being confirmed only for Czech Republic. However, the Czech labour market was fighting against higher imbalances than the Swedish one, throughout the whole period under review, with the most threatened unemployed having been both young and older people.

Nerovná startovní čára? Intersekcionální analýza počátků profesních drah jedenapůlté generace vietnamských mužů a žen na českém trhu práce

Based on 14 biographical-narrative interviews, using an intersectional approach to examine multiple discrimination based on age, gender, and ethnicity, we analyse the subjective reflections of young Vietnamese migrants from the second and the 1.5 generation on their integration into the Czech labour market. We analyse ethnicity and gender as socially constructed identities in the specific context of the labour market, school, and family. Important advantages that appear in the biographies of young Vietnamese migrant women and men influencing their positions in the labour market are their level of education, their knowledge of Czech and Vietnamese culture and language, and specific work experience. Focusing on potential discrimination and marginalisation, we can say that the young Vietnamese we interviewed often move between two identities - Czech and Vietnamese - to overcome potential disadvantages. Due to a high level of acculturation, they more frequently identify themselves with the Czech majority. At the same time, they derive benefits from the social and cultural capital of being a member of the Vietnamese minority. On the other hand, this advantage can inverse into disadvantage and young Vietnamese could fall into the trap of only occupying work positions that relate to their ethnic origin. For the reasons mentioned above, the Vietnamese in our study seek to acquire the highest possible cultural capital - the highest possible education and position in a prestigious profession, regardless of gender - as their strategy for overcoming potential disadvantage and avoiding the trap of 'migrant' labour-market niches their parents occupied.