Anatomy of the Czech Labour Market: From Over-Employment to Under-Empoyment in Ten Years?

The authors deal with macroeconomic aspects of the Czech job market behaviour and its microeconomic foundations. The first part focuses on overall trends in the job market and the key questions for macroeconomic policy. The second part elaborates on the job market flexibility, especially the flows in the job market, long-term unemployment and work force deprivation. The third part assesses wage flexibility and the development of relative wages, with special emphasis on regional wage flexibility in relation to unemployment and education yield. Worsening job market performance is reflected mainly in growing unemployment (NAIRU), declining work mobility, work force deprivation caused by long-term unemployment, discrepancy between the supply and demand of the work force with needed qualification and signs of inflexibility in the wage structure. The authors especially point out the limitations of the growth of potential products, caused by worsening of the job market functioning and the necessity of institutional and structural changes in the market, instead of anti-cycle measures. The book is a contribution to both macroeconomic policies and job market policies.