REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – NÁRODOHOSPODÁŘSKÝ OBZOR,
VOL. 14, ISSUE 3, 2014, pp. 287–306, DOI: 10.2478/revecp-2014-0015
Analysis of the Structure of Job Offers on the Czech
Labour Market
Tomáš Martínek1
, Petr Hanzlík2
Abstract: Labour market development is an important macro-economic indicator of
every national economy. Labour supply in particular fields should reflect on demands of
employers on newly recruited employees. These demands can be analysed by studying
published job offers. This analysis of Czech labour market is conducted based on the
aggregated statistical data collected by an on-demand application. The studied data
sample covers more than 60% of all the job offers published in the Czech Republic. The
situation in respective occupational fields is compared with aggregate nation-wide average
as well as with data from other fields. Results show distinct differences in absolute
quantity of offers, compensations to employees offered as well as qualification require-
ments.
Key words: Job offers, labour market, job search, Czech Republic, Employment Statis-
tics
JEL Classification: J32, J23
Introduction
The Czech Republic has an open, exported-oriented economy and so the situation on its
labour market is highly dependent on the world economy, and EU and Germany in
particular. The demand on these markets is a significant determinant of employer’s
requirements in the Czech Republic. In order to understand the dynamics of the labour
demand and to get insights about what potential employees can expect to see in published
vacant positions, and which qualities can help them apply for them successfully,
it is important to study job offers, their structure across various occupational fields, and
their representative characteristics. Knowing these, efficient strategies for education and
employability can be tailored, which can have a positive impact on the highly problematic
group of unemployed people younger than 25, where the unemployment rate is
significantly higher than the average unemployment rate of the EU as a whole (Jansen
2013).
1
Department of Information Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University
of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6, Czech Republic, E-mail: marti-
nekt@pef.czu.cz
2
Department of Information Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University
of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6, Czech Republic, E-mail:
hanzlik@pef.czu.cz
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288
To gather this desirable information, an on-demand application that aggregates the job
offers from multiple sources, including the Czech Labour Office and several private
personnel agencies and job portals has been created by the authors of this research. This
article analyses collected job offers properties, and studies the development tendencies
in 15 basic occupational areas, including agriculture and forestry. Characteristics of the
vacant positions are discussed with special emphasis to qualification requirements and
suitability for several interest groups of employees. It also analyses the type of contract
required, working hour structure and compensation to employees offered.
In the past decades, economies in Europe have undergone a deep restructuring, Czech
Republic being no exception. The admission into the European Union lead to implementation
of several European treaties into the local legislation aiming to support the
integration among EU countries, which has been the driving force behind most of the
recent changes. These affected the labour market in a way which further supported the
significant outflow of labour from agriculture, followed by the declining interest in the
field as a whole among the workforce. Several policies have been tailored and applied
to agriculture, including the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to provide farmers
with a reasonable standard of living. These farm subsidies have reduced the outflow of
labour from rural areas; however, researchers have shown that this policy has not halted
the outflow in a long-term perspective (Tocco, Davidova, Bailey, 2012). Imperfect
functioning of rural labour market has been pointed out as one of the key problems at
hand. This leads to a sub-optimal allocation of labour and thus to lower income of
workers in agriculture. For tailoring the agricultural policies, it is thus crucial to gain the
understanding of factor markets and the functioning of the labour market in particular.
The agricultural labour market is specific in many ways, especially concerning the dominant
rural characteristic of the field in comparison with industry and services. In order
to understand processes that take place on the agricultural labour market, it is vital to
recognize the aggregate labour market framework, and describe the most important
variables which govern the rural labour markets specifically. Teagasc (2011) classifies
these variables into three essential groups: Structure of the labour, legal framework and
regulations that govern the rural labour market, and the different policies that influence
the labour market. For further schematics, labour market can be differentiated into the
supply and demand side, according to the neoclassical economic theories.
Let us first present a few general assumptions about the supply side, in other words, the
available labour. As has already been mentioned before, agricultural activities are pursued
mainly in rural areas, which severely restricts residential choices (Johnson, 1991).
This in turn reduces both the cross-sector employment chance and mobility in general
(Hodge et al 2002). When compared to other sectors, many studies have pointed out the
high age of workers in agriculture (Bojnec et al., 2003; Bojnec and Dries, 2005; Van
Herck, 2009), as well as low level of education attained, with a significant proportion of
the population having no more than primary education. The quality of human capital of
agrarian sector is thus considered low (Goodwin and Holt, 2002).
The amount of demanded labour is associated with several employer-describing variables
too. One of the key differences among the employers is hidden in the organisational
structure, often expressed by the term dual farm structure (Schnicke et al., 2007). It
classifies farms into two categories – small family farms, and large, factory-style corpo-
Volume 14, Issue 3, 2014
289
rate farms. The way how these two types of units operate is typically significantly different
– the family farms extensively rely on family labour, while the corporate farms
utilize hired labour entirely.
Production season of agricultural activities pursued is another determinant of the
amount of labour demanded. During harvest, many fields of agriculture, like fruit growing,
still rely on manpower rather than on machinery. This way, an employee can be
employed on several agricultural activities throughout the year. The increase in the
share of seasonal wage labour, however, corresponds not only to an increase in intraannual
fluctuations of agricultural activity, but also to changes in manpower management
due to competition growing more severe and due to pressure on cutting costs
(Darpeix, Bignebat, Perrier-Cornet, 2014). Based on this, the high demand for seasonal
wage labour can be expected, in comparison with industry and service sector.
The demand side of the labour market is similarly characterised and affected by social
context (Uzzi 1997; Atterton 2007). The rural nature of agricultural activities once again
proves to be a problem because of the low population density in such areas, which limits
the available set of suitable candidates to fill in a vacancy (de Hoyos; Green, 2011). In
the long term, agricultural entrepreneurs thus often struggle with positions that are difficult
to fill.
This paper presents a factual framework of the Czech Labour market, and studies how
the employers in general utilize the labour portals for hiring the employees; special
emphasis is put on agriculture, here. Based on the dataset collected, the work analyzes
the structure of so represented agricultural labour demand in comparison with other
fields. Based on these findings, the propensity of labourers to be attracted by such offers
is discussed.
The main goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of job offers in the
Czech Republic, conducted on almost one-year long dataset of panel data collected from
November 23, 2012 to July 16, 2014. In order to provide an annual comparison of selected
characteristics, this data is further supported by the cross-sectional data from
December 10, 2013. This article is mainly based on this primary dataset which has been
gathered by the web application Nabidka-prace.czin.eu, created by the authors. This
paper further outlines the possibilities of the real time job offers analysis and its benefits
for understanding the labour market dynamics.
Materials and Methods
Czech labour market is a place of interaction among several entities. Besides the essential
ones - job applicants and employers, only a few other intermediaries exist. The
legislation explicitly defines the existence of the Labour Office, an institution which has
a duty to register vacant positions offered by employers, as well as potential workforce
registered at the Labour Office (CR 2011, CR 2004). In addition to this channel, there
are personnel agencies (also referred to as staffing agencies) which can help companies
find suitable candidates for vacant positions advertised. Personnel agencies can be financed
within the scope of shared employment mediation from the national budget
since 2012 (CR 2011). The personnel agency manages its own evidence of workforce
and registers vacant positions as provided by employers cooperating with it. Online job
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
290
portals are yet another group of players active on the Czech labour market. These portals
enable public to access vacant position offers stored in their database throughout a
web interface. The personal agencies often run their own job portals. Most of the independent
online job portals utilize a model, where both the personnel agencies and individual
employees can place their demands.
The web application Nabidka-práce.czin.eu, the main source of data in this research, is
thus de facto a job portal which aggregates job-offers available from the Czech Labour
Office, private personal agencies, and individual employers. By comparing the statistics
of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the amount of the data collected, it
processes more than 60% of all the job offers published in the Czech Republic. To
demonstrate this in absolute values, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs registered
35,178 of the vacant job positions as of December 13, 2013. In comparison, this study
registered 30,077 vacant job positions on the same day, listed in 15,923 individual job
offers.
The application is based on integrating the job-offers’ metadata using XML. The job
offers collected have been further classified to 15 categories, following the basic categories
used at the web portal of the Czech Labour Office. Every investigated job offer thus
must be assigned to one of the corresponding classes: Administration, Traffic, Finances,
IT, Legal Services, Culture and sport, Management, Business and tourism, Defence and
protection, Civil engineering, Research and development, Training and education, Production
and manufacturing, Healthcare, Agriculture and forestry. Most of the data
sources used, however, enable classification of a job offer to more than one category.
According to the analysed data set, less than 20% of all the offers are of such a character.
Annual comparison of cross-sectional observations from December 10, 2012, and December
10, 2013, is provided to foreshadow the longitudinal tendencies on the market.
When analysing compensations paid to employees, it is crucial to realize one feature of
job offers: Starting wage is often specified as an interval. This article operates with this
assumption and creates an interval overview of offered salaries, too, by introducing
three basic terms – average minimum salary, average salary, and average maximum
salary. The average minimum salary was calculated as an average of salaries listed as a
minimal offering. The average maximal salary has been calculated as the average upper
boundary of salaries listed with a maximum starting salary. The average salary has
eventually been calculated as the average of upper and lower boundary of the salary
interval in relevant cases. The minimum salary is available in circa 90% of the job offers,
while the average and maximum salary achievable is announced in over 40% of all
the job offers analysed.
As far as methodical basis of this article is concerned, it uses quantitative data analysis
where the main emphasis is placed on categorical distribution of data in individual categories
and annual change comparison. The obtained data of the panel character has thus
been studied both from the long-term development point of view and from the categorical
contribution to the aggregate image.
Volume 14, Issue 3, 2014
291
Analysis of Job Offers
This paper thoroughly analyses the workforce demand in the Czech Republic as represented
by the previously specified dataset. To put this study into the labour market reference
frame, let us first present the official statistics showing the development of the
total unemployment in last three years related to the official number of the vacant job
positions, as presented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA).
Figure 1 Unemployment and Vacant Positions Statistics 2011-2014 (With Annual Data from
December)
Source: MoLSA Integrated portal
To understand the nature of vacant positions further, let us split it now into individual
categories according to general occupational field. Relative representations of most
common of them are presented in the following graph. In the fourth quarter of 2013, the
unemployment rate of the population in productive age (i.e. between 15 and 64 years)
was 6.8% in the Czech Republic, which is the sixth lowest figure to be found among the
EU countries; the EU average being 10.7% (CSO 2014).
508 451
545 311
596 833
35 784 34 893 35 178
0
100 000
200 000
300 000
400 000
500 000
600 000
700 000
Unemployment Vacant positions2011 2014
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
292
Figure 2 Vacant Job Positions by Categories
Source: Own work.
As has already been mentioned in the section discussing the materials used, approximately
one fifth of offers can be categorised to more than one group. If we were to sum
up these relative shares, we would conclude that the result would exceed 100. The share
of vacant job position in the prominent category, “production and manufacturing”, is
gradually increasing, having reached 35% in the December 2013. This can correspond
to the increasing performance of the Czech economy in the last two quarters of 2013.
The second category listed as “trade and travelling” is stable in the period under observation,
with its share fluctuating just above 25%. On the other hand, the relative share of
offers in “finances” gradually declines, yet remains above 10%. Administration, traffic,
construction, and defence and protection are the remaining categories broadly desired
by employees, with each represented in more than 5% of all the job offers. The number
of vacant positions in agriculture and forestry reaches above this line only in the spring,
corresponding to the obvious seasonal character of the field. These data are further
differentiated by the contract types.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
2012-11-23 2013-03-03 2013-06-11 2013-09-19 2013-12-28 2014-04-07 2014-07-16
Administration Traffic Finance
Trade and travelling Defence and protection Construction
Production and manufacturing Healthcare Agriculture and forestry
Volume 14, Issue 3, 2014
293
Table 1 Vacant Job Positions by Contract Type and Job Category
Full time Part time Fixed-term
Administrative 92.56% 0.32% 6.22% -7.44% 1.21% 19.85%
Traffic 95.57% -0.74% 2.91% -1.67% 1.52% 99.58%
Finance 79.10% -11.15% 18.60% 153.61% 2.30% -36.77%
Information Technologies 91.60% -5.38% 7.35% 199.84% 1.05% 42.78%
Legal services 96.67% -3.33% 0.00% - 3.33% Culture
a sport 53.45% -3.25% 44.48% 2.15% 2.07% 71.03%
Management 90.20% 14.28% 8.66% -57.44% 1.14% 57.39%
Trade and travelling 84.64% -3.43% 13.70% 28.45% 1.64% -2.78%
Defence and protection 80.77% -1.03% 17.31% -0.64% 1.92% 98.72%
Construction 92.28% -4.00% 6.67% 133.87% 1.06% 3.12%
Research and development 99.12% -0.88% 0.88% - 0.00% Education
81.03% -3.38% 18.53% 25.69% 0.43% -68.82%
Production and manufacturing 95.44% -2.28% 3.49% 101.80% 1.07% 76.72%
Healthcare 96.44% 0.49% 2.33% 15.61% 1.23% -38.79%
Agriculture and forestry 96.37% 0.60% 3.63% 29.36% 0.00% -100.00%
Czech Rep. In total 90.39% -2.11% 8.25% 28.75% 1.36% 7.94%
Source: Own work.
Over 90% of all the vacant job positions are contracted as full time jobs. This signifies
the annual decrease of more than 2%. The category of finances, where the decline
reaches 11%, is the most significant contributor to this tendency. The fixed term contracts,
or contracts with the freelancers and contractors are generally preferred over the
full-time job agreements. These contractors are often self-employed or are part of other
companies.
According to a study carried out by European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), this shift in
demand for alternative employment contracts can be an interesting identifier of influence
of the world economic crisis. This approach is based on the assumption that the
most significant increase in the number of employment contracts different than full-time
happens in economies where the impact of the global economic crisis is strongest
(Leschke 2012).
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294
Monthly Compensations Offered to Employees
The average salary in the Czech Republic is in a long run subjected to the both directional
fluctuation. The long-term development of the average salaries is presented in the
following figure:
Figure 3 The Average Salary in the Czech Republic by Gender (in CZK)
Source: CSO (2014)
Figure 4 Overview of Compensations to Employees in CZK as Occurring in Job Offers
Processed
Source: Own work.
12 000
14 000
16 000
18 000
20 000
22 000
24 000
26 000
2012-11-23 2013-03-03 2013-06-11 2013-09-19 2013-12-28 2014-04-07 2014-07-16
Average minimal compensation to employees Average compensation to employees
Average maximal compensation to employees
Volume 14, Issue 3, 2014
295
Figure 4 represents the development in compensation to employees as they occurred in
the job offers analysed. In order to understand this figure, it is important to recall that in
many cases, job offers contain starting salaries specified as an interval rather than as a
single value. Therefore, the figure clearly shows that while the average minimum offered
is stable and fluctuating around 16,000 CZK, the maximum boundary is much
more volatile and declining in the long term. In average, the starting salary offered by
employers thus moves just below 20,000 CZK. It is also interesting to note both the
average minimum and the total average in agriculture and forestry lies deep below the
country’s average.
The situation in individual occupation categories is presented in a greater detail in the
following table.
Table 2 Compensation Offered to Employees by Domain, including Annual Comparison
Field
Job offers share
Average minimal
compensation to
employees
Average compensation
to employees
Average maximal
compensation to
employees
%
Annual
change
CZK
Annual
change
CZK
Annual
change
CZK
Annual
change
Administrative 7.29% -7.13% 16,173 0.85% 19,954 4.17% 23,787 5.92%
Traffic 8.84% 16.26% 17,234 4.50% 20,679 -0.39% 24,002 0.10%
Finance 12.30% -9.51% 18,306 -0.28% 25,248 5.57% 30,378 0.71%
Information technologies 1.65% -36.89% 23,997 1.97% 29,812 0.07% 36,989 1,24%
Legal services 0.23% -40.43% 18,158 4.63% 20,830 -2.50% 24,727 -2.13%
Culture a sport 1.73% 43.31% 12,451 -4.10% 17,099 -16.85% 20,165 -19.61%
Management 2.38% -29.02% 24,576 8.90% 31,047 4.20% 38,222 7.74%
Trade and travelling 26.22% 0.34% 14,772 0.00% 19,657 -1.77% 24,163 -3.45%
Defence and protection 6.41% -5.43% 9,628 6.26% 11,648 2.71% 13,590 4.48%
Construction 5.89% -23.72% 15,195 1.27% 17,705 4.49% 21,040 6.12%
Research and Develop-
ment
0.45% -5.76% 25,847 11.61% 34,768 24.66% 41,443 5.27%
Education 1.28% -6.95% 15,872 0.64% 18,008 1.28% 20,982 0.13%
Production and manu-
facturing
36.10% 15.98% 16,137 -1.45% 19,248 -1.80% 22,850 0.39%
Healthcare 3.54% -10.52% 19,996 2.40% 22,852 -5.01% 27,166 -6.97%
Agriculture and forestry 3.22% 34.24% 13,388 4.90% 15,178 2.59% 17,622 -49.42%
Czech Rep. In Total 100% - 15,996 0.03% 19,879 -1.62% 23,967 -1.98%
Source: Own work.
Like in the majority of the world (Van Der Hoeven 2010), the difference in the level of
income among individual fields is increasing. The average starting salary offered is
naturally significantly higher in the high-income domains, such as research and devel-
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
296
opment, management, or finances, and it still experiences quite a significant growth. As
far as the minimum average is concerned, compensations to employees seems to grow
significantly especially in the categories which are below the long-term national average,
like culture and sport, and agriculture and forestry.
Specific Groups of Job Applicants
When analysing labour demand, it is also important to differentiate individual offers
according to their target group; such as by jobs suitable for foreign nationals, or for
disabled people. The following figure, categorized by the occupation field, presents the
statistics of foreign workforce.
Figure 5 Amount of Foreign Nationals Employed in the Czech Republic by Categories of
Economic Activities
Source: CSO (2012)
The aggregate numbers from the Czech Statistical Office can again serve as a reference,
when analysing the data gathered by our application, as presented in the following table.
Most of the offers suitable for foreign nationals in the Czech Republic have been identified
in the fields of information technologies, research and development, education,
agriculture and forestry, healthcare, legal services, and construction. Overall, it thus
covers approximately 5% of job offers, which represent a significant annual drop of
more than 16%. A crucial difference is also in the salaries offered. While in the fields
where companies mostly demand highly qualified specialists (like IT, management,
administration, finances, healthcare, or research and development) salaries offered exceed
the nation-wide average, whereas in occupations classified as construction, education,
or agriculture and forestry, the salaries offered were significantly lower. The correlation
between the starting salary and the desired specialization including the level of
education seems to be a reasonable hypothesis. The total amount of offers in agriculture
4 231
3 611
4 459
68 181
812
29 580
26 122
7 733
7 494
10 572
3 103
7 437
15 018
14 448
565
5 858
6 930
1 708
0 10 000 20 000 30 000 40 000 50 000 60 000 70 000 80 000
Others
Agriculture, forestry and fishing
Mining and quarrying
Manufacturing
Water supply; sewerage, waste management
Construction
Wholesale and retail trade; repair
Transportation and storage
Accommodation and food service activities
Information and communication
Financial and insurance activities
Real estate activities
Professional, scientific and technical activities
Administrative and support service activities
Public administration and defence
Education
Human health and social work activities
Arts, entertainment and recreation
Volume 14, Issue 3, 2014
297
and forestry suitable for foreign nationals has also significantly decreased in an annual
comparison.
Table 3 Job Offers Suitable for Foreign Nationals and Disabled People, Categorized by
Fields of Occupation
Foreigners
Annual
Change
Average minimum
salary
People
with a
disability
Annual
Change
Average minimum
salary
Administrative 5.06% -34.08% 31,663 17.91% 27.10% 11,020
Traffic 6.20% -20.72% 16,505 3.81% 42.56% 11,543
Finance 3.36% -3.25% 35,373 10.36% 22.94% 16,761
Information technol-
ogies
22.30% -3.50% 38,066 13.65% 79.63% 18,826
Legal services 8.62% -61.33% 38,500 8.33% 61.11% 15,638
Culture a sport 10.48% -1.33% 17,193 6.90% 71.03% 7,844
Management 11.34% -0.55% 41,537 3.76% 43.65% 22,179
Trade and travelling 3.46% -5.04% 21,103 7.44% 26.79% 10,331
Defence and protec-
tion
0.65% -20.51% 6,000 59.87% 21.31% 8,975
Construction 7.87% -39.48% 13,210 1.90% -16.48% 11,680
Research and
Development
19.39% 4.98% 39,320 9.73% 90.80% 22,892
Education 18.89% -38.40% 14,822 8.19% 255.43% 13,476
Production and
manufacturing
5.77% -17.22% 18,668 7.07% 25.51% 11,253
Healthcare 9.48% 51.47% 22,706 3.69% -19.66% 14,359
Agriculture and
forestry
11.21% -30.70% 10,429 4.66% 149.48% 9,678
Czech Rep. In Total 5.07% -16.32% 24,140 10.72% 27.69% 11,604
Source: Own work.
The disabled are another specific group in the workforce. In total, over 10% of presented
job offers were suitable for them, which mark a significant increase in such a type of
offers with annual increase of over 27%. It can be safely assumed that this is the result
of the Czech subsidy policy. In spite of that, the average salary offered remains deep
under the nation-wide average.
Education
Besides following the characteristics which determine the actual desirability and availability
of a vacant position, it is important to study the characteristics that employers
require from job candidates. Such information is especially useful when trying to find
out what is the potential gap between the capabilities of available workforce and employers’
needs. The following graph describes the desired structure of education within
presented job offers.
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
298
Figure 6 Requirements for Level of Education Attained within Positions Offered
Source: Own work.
According to the figure 5, the demand for workers, who have completed the secondary
education with school leaving exam or higher is decreasing. This could have been
caused by the increasing demand for labour in the secondary sector, in the production
and manufacturing in particular. A detailed overview of the level of education required
within the analysed offers is presented in the following table, including the annual
changes in demand.
Even though the amount of job offers requiring at least secondary education finished by
a school leaving exam decreases, the postulate of positions requiring higher level of
education being awarded a higher starting salary is still valid. On a nation-wide average,
graduates of master study programs are offered a starting salary of CZK 28,222. In
direct comparison, positions requiring only the elementary education are awarded CZK
11,756 on average. Secondary education not finished by a school leaving exam is sufficient
mainly in traffic, culture and sport, trade and traffic, construction, production and
manufacturing, and agriculture and forestry. Secondary education finished by a school
leaving exam is the minimum requirement for getting a job mostly in the administration,
finances, IT, and management. Professional tertiary education or university education is
especially required in the high-responsibility professional domains like research and
development, legal services, education, healthcare, and management. Most of the job
offers in agriculture and forestry require only elementary or secondary level education.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2012-11-23 2013-03-03 2013-06-11 2013-09-19 2013-12-28 2014-04-07 2014-07-16
No education required Elementary education
Secondary education Secondary education incl. School-leaving exam
Tertiary professional degree Bachelor degree
Master degree Doctoral degree
Table 4 The Share of Job Offers in Individual Categories by the Highest Level of Education Attained, Including Annual Comparison
Relative values in %
No education
required
Elementary
education
Secondary
education
Secondary
education incl.
School-leaving
exam
Tertiary professional
degree
Bachelor degree Master degree Doctoral degree
Administrative 0.8 125.0 6.7 -15.7 25.5 36.7 57.6 10.5 2.0 257.1 1.7 -39.6 5.8 -19.7 0.1 Traffic
1.1 99.9 30.8 -3.9 56.6 44.5 10.2 14.2 0.1 - 0.2 -63.7 1.0 21.0 0.0 Finance
0.1 100.0 1.6 -41.3 33.5 34.0 58.3 31.4 1.4 57.2 1.0 -13.5 4.1 -8.2 0.1 Information
technologies 0.0 100.0 1.3 7.1 13.7 29.8 54.1 -44.4 5.0 239.1 10.5 -22.1 15.2 -12.5 0.0 Legal
services 0.0 - 18.3 6.3 11.7 -54.4 8.3 1446 3.3 93.3 1.7 -51.7 56.7 21.7 0.0 -100
Culture a sport 0.0 - 11.7 32.2 54.8 217.2 26.6 -1.2 1.0 -14.5 1.7 6.9 4.1 -31.6 0.0 Management
0.0 - 0.5 68.6 21.6 16.2 51.3 48.5 2.9 102.4 4.4 -15.7 19.1 3.6 0.2 -43.8
Trade and travelling 0.5 63.6 8.3 -1.7 57.2 37.8 30.6 36.2 0.7 33.3 0.6 -50.6 2.2 -13.1 0.0 Defence
and protection 1.0 -42.9 62.4 7.2 32.7 17.4 3.5 56.9 0.3 59.0 0.0 - 0.1 -60.3 0.0 Construction
0.9 -30.0 14.0 -14.3 64.8 5.5 14.0 79.7 0.9 85.6 0.2 -7.2 5.3 25.4 0.0 Research
and development 0.0 - 0.0 - 5.3 390.9 31.9 618.6 1.8 73.5 7.1 38.8 51.3 -10.2 2.7 -35.0
Education 0.0 - 1.7 -6.5 14.2 6.0 39.7 -17.4 7.3 44.6 6.0 -6.5 30.6 -23.7 0.4 -76.6
Production and manufacturing 0.5 41.2 11.4 12.1 61.6 31.8 21.2 39.9 0.4 -35.7 0.5 -30.4 4.3 -27.6 0.1 53.2
Healthcare 0,0 - 4.2 391.9 5.1 -3.7 31.2 5.1 11.6 26.4 3.3 52.3 43.4 -7.7 1.2 -38.8
Agriculture and forestry 2.1 0.0 32.6 -5.6 45.1 -8.5 17.1 11.0 0.5 - 0.0 - 2.1 -36.6 0.5 Czech
Rep. In Total 0.6 16.2 14.3 9.4 49.1 27.8 27.2 20.7 1.3 21.6 1.1 -24.8 6.2 -21.7 0.1 -37.8
Average salary offered CZK 10,197 CZK 11,765 CZK 14,541 CZK 17,439 CZK 18,744 CZK 25,214 CZK 28,221 CZK 25,727
Source: Own work.
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300
Besides the general requirement for education level attained, employers usually require
many other qualifications and personal skills. Employees possessing these skills can
expect a higher starting salary. Driving license and basic computer skills are some of the
most common skills required by employers. People who can work with computer can
thus in average expect to get the starting salary of CZK 19,747 , while having the driving
licence helps to increase the salary to CZK 18,044 . The average minimum salary is
higher by 21% if computer skills are required, while driving licence increases the initial
offer by additional 9 % compared to job offers which do not require such a skill. This
means that education and knowledge open doors to choice from larger amount of vacant
positions and help minimize risks of being unemployed (Riddell 2011).
In combination with the current state of economy, level and specialization of education
attained can significantly influence employability on local market. A research studies
from Greece suggest the people educated in fields directly connected to private sector,
have higher chances of being employed than those who have education in fields which
directly support operations of the public sector. (Livanos 2010)
Language Skills
Different specializations require a very distinct set of personal skills and abilities. Besides
those mentioned previously, there is but one more factor which is comparable
throughout all of the occupational fields – knowledge of foreign languages. The required
knowledge of languages is presented in the following diagram.
Figure 7 Required Language Skills as Occurring in Job Offers
Source: Own work.
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
2012-11-23 2013-03-03 2013-06-11 2013-09-19 2013-12-28 2014-04-07 2014-07-16
English language German language Russian language
Volume 14, Issue 3, 2014
301
This statistics include only those positions offered, where knowledge of languages is
one of the necessary pre-conditions for being eligible to get the job. Besides the listed,
many of the positions offered consider such skill to be an advantage. Nonetheless, collecting
such kind of data would be technically difficult. The following table presents the
distribution of foreign language knowledge required among individual offers, broken
down into occupational fields:
Table 5 Relative Share of Language Skills Requirements by Occupation Fields
English German Russian
2013 Annual Change 2013 Annual Change 2013 Annual Change
Administrative 9.56% -33.02% 4.78% -27.90% 1.59% -24.77%
Traffic 2.56% -53.70% 3.46% -35.20% 1.32% -18.89%
Finance 5.15% -23.27% 1.85% -15.71% 0.95% -7.37%
Information technologies 25.46% -24.18% 2.10% -57.17% 3.15% -32.37%
Legal services 15.00% 190.00% 3.33% 93.33% 1.67% -3.33%
Culture a sport 3.79% -55.21% 1.38% -51.13% 2.07% -35.86%
Management 13.56% -9.41% 4.74% -11.89% 5.72% 15.72%
Trade and traffic 5.12% -26.22% 2.43% -28.06% 1.20% -0.18%
Defence and protection 0.77% -4.62% 0.13% - 0.00% -100.00%
Construction 1.27% -41.39% 0.85% 6.06% 1.06% -33.71%
Research and development 30.09% 5.31% 4.42% -13.27% 6.19% -13.27%
Education 12.50% -20.22% 0.86% -62.59% 0.86% -53.23%
Production and manufacturing 4.38% -32.27% 1.81% -45.53% 0.68% -19.17%
Healthcare 3.01% -38.39% 1.23% 71.38% 1.92% 21.18%
Agriculture and forestry 1.04% -26.08% 0.00% -100.00% 0.00% -100.00%
Czech Rep. In Total 5.09% -28.43% 2.01% -30.69% 1.09% -19.36%
Source: Own work.
The languages prominent in job offers in the Czech Republic include English, German,
and Russian. The analysis clearly shows that English is especially important for getting
a job in research and development, and in IT. German language is typically required in
administration, Russian in research and development, and in management, too. Other
required languages can be ranked in the following order: Polish, Spanish, French, Italian,
and Hungarian. In annual comparison, the amount of job offers requiring foreign languages
have declined significantly, however, this tendency matches the previous findings
of this research which point out the increasing labour demand in production and
manufacturing, where the international communication skills are typically only advan-
tageous.
The average minimum salary in job offers which require from the candidates to possess
a set of language skills is higher than the total average salary calculated without any
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
302
further qualification assumption. In absolute numbers, positions requiring knowledge of
English are offered with an average starting salary of CZK 24,138, whilst a German
speaker can expect an average starting salary of CZK 21,463, and the Russian language
command contributes to an average starting salary of CZK 25,891. In comparison to job
offers requiring no specific language skills, the average minimum salary is thus 39%
higher in job offers where knowledge of English is required. The knowledge of German
language leads to a minimum average salary higher by 19%, while job offers requiring
Russian promise even a significant 70% increase in comparison to the average.
Shift Operation
Organization of work hours is an important factor, which can influence if a person applies
for a work positions. The following graph studies the shift operation scenarios
occurring in job offers.
Figure 8 Shift Operation as Occurring in the Analysed Set of Job Offers
Source: Own work.
The graph provided above shows that the structure of labour market as categorised by
the types of shift operation is stable. Most of the offers are placed by companies that
operate in the one-shift organisation – approximately 54%. This can be understood as a
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
2012-11-23 2013-03-03 2013-06-11 2013-09-19 2013-12-28 2014-04-07 2014-07-16
Single shift Two-shift Three-shift Continuous
Batch-based Other Flexible
Volume 14, Issue 3, 2014
303
regular time employment scenario. Flexible work hours are second in order, which
signifies the emphasis on results rather than rigid organisational structures. Two-shift
organisation with a share higher than 11% is the third most common scenario occurring
in job offers. The structure of job market differentiated by the shift scenarios is presented
in the following table, including the relative annual changes.
Table 6 The Shift Operation Scenarios by Occupational Fields
Relative shares
in %
Single shift Two-shift Three-shift Continuous Batch-based Flexible
Oth-
er
Administrative 78.3 6.0 3.8 -17.6 0.8 106.0 1.0 -10.7 0.8 3.0 13.0 -9.1 2.4
Traffic 46.8 -3.2 7.1 41.0 4.8 53.9 3.3 20.1 7.8 -3.2 23.9 -8.6 6.2
Finance 53.0 -8.7 1.5 32.8 0.2 22.6 0.2 9.0 3.1 27.1 40.6 14.6 1.4
Information
technologies
64.6 -3.5 3.4 -0.6 1.3 7.1 0.5 7.1 0.3 - 27.8 9.1 2.1
Legal services 86.7 25.7 1.7 -51.7 0.0 - 1.7 -75.8 0.0 -100 8.3 -39.6 1.7
Culture a sport 30.3 -5.9 6.2 -3.8 0.0 - 0.3 - 5.2 16.6 53.8 2.6 4.1
Management 60.1 17.5 10.6 69.9 0.8 87.4 1.1 293.5 0.5 -69.3 23.4 -35.7 3.4
Trade and
traffic
40.1 0.5 11.8 14.4 1.5 36.1 1.2 0.7 18.1 -9.4 22.0 -4.0 5.4
Defence and
protection
33.3 0.3 18.8 -26.5 0.9 -49.4 18.3 17.2 15.4 -4.6 8.8 71.4 4.4
Construction 79.8 -2.3 2.3 7.5 1.5 -40.9 1.4 9.7 2.1 85.6 10.7 9.0 2.2
Research and
development
75.2 -1.7 0.9 -56.6 2.7 30.1 1.8 73.5 0.0 - 17.7 8.4 1.8
Education 68.1 -8.8 8.2 122.1 0.0 - 2.2 133.8 1.3 -6.5 16.8 1.3 3.4
Production and
manufacturing
58.5 -2.4 16.1 0.9 12.5 16.8 3.0 6.3 1.3 6.9 6.5 -6.0 2.1
Healthcare 69.1 2.7 7.3 57.7 2.9 -16.7 10.9 29.1 2.2 -15.4 5.6 -24.9 2.1
Agriculture and
forestry
52.8 -8.8 21.8 29.4 2.1 -11.3 1.6 232.6 3.1 10.9 12.4 10.9 6.2
Czech republic
in total
54.0 -1.3 11.3 7.3 5.0 22.0 3.1 16.7 7.6 -4.9 15.5 -4.4 3.6
Source: Own work.
The one-shift employment scenario is most common in the vast majority of studied
occupational fields. The exceptions are the individual performance oriented branches of
culture and sport, where more than 53% of all the vacant positions offer flexible work
hours. Such a work scenario is also common in more than 40% of all the offers in the
field of finances. It can be assumed this is connected to the fact that fixed term contracts
are signed frequently in this field, and the actual workers are usually self-employed.
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
304
Conclusion
This research provides unique insights into the characteristics of job offers as occurring
in the real recruiting campaigns on the labour market. This research is thus bound to
identify interesting facts and propose hypotheses, which can be subject of a consequent
studies. The recent quarters have shown the increasing numbers of job offers occurring
in the production and manufacturing, which corresponds to the findings of the Czech
Statistical Office about the improving performance of the Czech economy. This development
also influences the entire structure of labour demand where the total number of
positions requiring primary and secondary education only has been growing steadily.
The long term average minimal salary as presented in the analysed job offers is still
stagnating in the long term, while the average salary offered is decreasing, presumably
because of the excessive workforce available. This excess of workforce is caused by
relatively higher unemployment than in previous periods, and by the lingering influence
of the economic crises.
This study presented the possibility to study the tendencies on the labour market using
the short-term, concurrent data. Such approach could be much more flexible than the
current ex-post analysis of the labour market data, often conducted with several years of
delay. If the actual requirements of the labour market were taken into account by the
public authorities which determine how prosperous employees prepare for their engagement
in labour market, the ongoing tendencies on the labour market could be addressed
in a much more flexible way to allocate more of the available workforce. By
automating the process of a preliminary analysis of the opened vacancies, the labour
market prognoses could be fine-tuned, and thus the short-term employment tools, such
as requalification courses or work force reallocation, can be utilized much more effi-
ciently.
This article presents the unique set of job offers data aggregated from various sources.
The information about the vacant job positions can naturally be acquired from variety of
specific job portals in the Czech Republic, as well as in other countries. However, the
majority of these sources rely purely on its own dataset. The aggregation of these
sources is thus highly desirable to gather the dataset suitable for relevant analysis. Public
authorities should analyse regularly the present situation at labour market over available
data and integrate them flexibly into short and long term employment strategies. In
the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs currently presents a
monthly unemployment statistics, typically with a one-month delay. However, these
statistics contain only an overall account of job positions available, differentiated by
regions and education level required. The structure of available job positions could
obviously be presented in a more precise way. An inspiration can be found in the Slovak
Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, which breaks down the job offers
by detailed requirements for the vacant positions.
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