Employment in Europe
Eurostat estimates that 3.4% of the labour force are unemployed. A record-breaking figure in Europe. The government’s efforts, the relations with businesses. The Church does her share too. Several knots remain, from salary levels to vocational training. Room for “social entrepreneurship”. Fourth chapter of the survey by SIR
The Czech Republic is the Country with the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union. The figures released by Eurostat on April 3, comprising the period until the end of February, registered a 3.4%, remarkably low numbers on a population of 10.5 million (reportedly, 100 to 150 thousand are those in search of a job). According to Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, the figures show that the government does not underestimate the development of the job market in a period of economic prosperity (GDP growth rates are encouraging), with several measures that take into account the needs of employers and employees alike. “I consider it very important that young people have easier access to the job market. The future of our society – Sobotka recently declared – depends on the young generations and it’s fundamental for young people to prepare themselves for the job market and be specifically trained at an early stage.”
The demand increases, but… the numbers released by official sources show that the Country has also something to teach. Viktor Zeisel, economic expert of the prominent Commercial Bank, remarked: “Recent statistical data confirm a strong demand of workforce in the Czech Republic.”
However, he noted, the needs of employers and the capabilities of potential workers don’t always meet.
According to Jan Karmazin, Director of the Department for Employment of the Czech Labour Office, in addition to a possible lack of required experience, qualifications and skills, the candidates may incur in problems with regard to salaries, job shifts, physical disabilities, limited mobility or insecurity linked to short-term contracts offered by enterprises. Data analysts envisage that the job market will be facing major wage changes to increase the chances that employers find the appropriate candidates for long term jobs.
Employment and the Czech Church. The Catholic Church, in her various activities at local level, is one of the many employers in the Czech Republic, although her employment structure is not homogeneous and thus she is lacking a common strategy in terms of staff management. The Church doesn’t forget to combine job integration with her mission inspired to service, offering job opportunities also to disabled persons, especially in the sectors of forestry and agriculture.
“In terms of our activity we focus on providing support to regional development extended as much as possible, and on offering new jobs”,
said Mons. Jan Graubner, Archbishop of Olomouc, Vice-President of the Czech Bishops’ Conference, who added that agriculture and forestry are traditional sectors of Catholic entrepreneurship and thus the Church intends to “step up this trend in the coming years.”
Problems remain. Mons. Vaclav Maly, President of the Iustititia et Pax Commission, told SIR that while the unemployment rate “has dropped to a low” , not the same can be said “for the structure” of unemployment. “Our Commission has pointed out that the number of long-term unemployed has not decreased. Disadvantaged persons, those with special needs, or mothers at the end of maternity leave, who would prefer a part-time job, find it hard to find.”
“Social entrepreneurship.” The so-called “social entrepreneurship” – such as cooperatives, services of social value, as well as breweries – is a recent phenomenon in the Czech Republic that is giving rise to a lively debate across society and inside the Catholic Church.
The focus is always placed on the service to society, without neglecting the financial and economic aspects.
“Successful ecclesial projects have been carried out in the area of social entrepreneurship. For example, in Neratov we managed to restore an ancient pilgrimage site and create a social manufacturing cooperative in addition to a small farm that hires disabled workers.” Mons. Vaclav Maly, answering a question on the relationship between social entrepreneurship and the gradual self-financing of the Church (a process ongoing in the Country for some time already), said that it works if “the enterprise is well-structured.” With no doubt there emerges room for Church-State cooperation in the area of employment, supported also by the Declaration on Mutual Cooperation signed in 2014 by Cardinal Dominik Duka, President of the Czech Bishops’ Conference, and by the Director General of the Labour Office Marie Bilkova.
Further rights to defend. Moreover, Msgr. Maly pointed out that certain areas equally deserve the attention of society and the competent authorities, such as the right to a home, the protection of the rights of small entrepreneurs, of the rights of dependent workers in retail trading, less rigour in insolvency issues, a transparent approach towards foreign workers as regards low health insurance cover and social security.
