Analysis

Czech labour market attractive to foreign graduates

The Czech labour market is attracting increasingly more foreign graduates. The booming economy — the Czech National Bank expects a 3.9 per cent growth rate in 2018, and the low unemployment — 2.4 in the first quarter of 2018 — means that many companies no longer require work experience.

“There are currently 300,000 job vacancies on the labour market and in the case of 70,000 job offers a lack of experience is not considered a drawback,“ Labour Office spokesperson Martin Bačkovský tells Radio Praha.

The Czech Republic ranks third amongst European Union countries in terms of job opportunities for graduates. The labour markets in countries like Greece, Italy or Spain have far less to offer. According to Radio Praha, the highest number of foreign graduates who seek work in the Czech Republic are from Greece, where the number of jobless school graduates is the highest in the European Union. Every month 150 to 200 Greek graduates leave the country to look for jobs in the Czech Republic.

At the same time, according to Labour Office statistics, 90 per cent of young Czechs found employment in their home country. Very often they manage to secure a job even before graduating – either through an internship or at the many workshops organised by firms seeking young employees. Some universities have set up web sites at which companies looking for graduates can place job offers and internship offers. There are also those students who leave the country in search of better money or valuable experience abroad.