Brno - Experts have been speaking about this new trend for some time, but now there are hard data to confirm it: the unemployment of the young has already become a serious problem for the Czech Republic.
Out of the 30 thousand people that have not worked in the last eight years, almost 16 thousand are people under 29 years. These are the data of the Czech Statistical Office, which focus on all people who have finished their primary education. For example, trainees with paid internships are considered employed.
The data show that the Czech Republic, above all in its poorer parts, is witnessing an emergence of a generation of young people who have never worked.
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The Czech Republic is far from being alone - on the contrary, it fits into the global trend. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 81 million young people were jobless in 2009. This group has already its name - the lost generation. Or, young people that have finished their studies and now spend months and years looking for work.
"It is the worst situation since World War II, and joblessness among young people is expected to surge in fall 2010. The young in developing countries, where most of them live, are in the worst situation," said the ILO.
Czech experts believe that the number of jobless graduates will be more than 47,000 in fall 2010. This will be more than in 2005, which was the worst year in terms of unemployment among young people so far.
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In the second quarter of 2010, the number of people who were without job for more than a year grew to 154,900. In comparison with the previous year, the number of long-term unemployed grew by 59,300.
Out of the 154,900 long-term unemployed, 81,100 are women, 72,300 are people with apprenticeship certificates, and 45,600 people who have only finished their primary education. The largest part of the group are people who have worked in the manufacturing industry. Regionally, the highest number of the long-term unemployed is in the Ústí nad Labem region (26,700) and the Moravia-Silesia region (26,100).
On the contrary, Prague and Liberec (North Bohemia) have the lowest number of long-term unemployed - 4,500 and 4,900 respectively.
