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Traditional trades lacking recruits

With low unemployment rate, craftsmen in high demand

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 29th, 2007 issue

Even though the development of the expanding high-tech sector grabs most of the country’s current attention, attracting people to low-tech jobs is becoming a burning issue for many businesses.
Many firms are finding it increasingly difficult and time-consuming to recruit suitable applicants in the traditional trades, such as welders or plumbers. Thanks to strong economic growth, unemployment has reached levels not seen for almost a decade, with the jobless rate now standing at only 6.4 percent.
“We have now reached a point where, in core industries, too few take up apprenticeships to become electricians, metalworkers or welders, and too many leave these schemes,” said Sebastian Holtgrewe, spokesman of the German-Czech Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
Taking on foreign workers can only be an “interim solution,” he added. “It is important for the Czech Republic to modernize its education system so that it is able to fulfill the demand for qualified employees in manufacturing and engineering.”
Officials from the government agree with Holtgrewe’s assessment.
“The education system is not practically prepared for the future development of the economy and the needs of the job market,” said Štěpán Černoušek, Labor and Social Affairs Ministry spokesman. “A framework for lifelong learning does not yet exist that would provide ongoing professional qualification ... and retraining.”
As the labor pool is running dry, managers are looking for workers from neighboring countries to fill the gap. Almost 214,000 foreign workers are registered in the Czech Republic, twice as many as three years ago.
“It’s a logical reaction by employers to the current situation on the labor market,” Černoušek said.
Well-trained craftsmen are in high demand, statistics from local labor offices reveal, with businesses posting open positions for bricklayers, plasterers, welders, metalworkers, electricians and plumbers, along with tram drivers, sewing-machine operators and waitresses.
Once employers are ready to add to their payrolls, they face tough competition on the job market, which is driving wages up. The average gross wage rose 8.3 percent over the past year, to 20,399 Kč ($992) a month, according to the Czech Statistical Office.
But this competition isn’t just increasing wages. Holding on to employees once they are hired is also becoming a serious challenge.
“It’s difficult to retain employees over the long haul,” Holtgrewe said.
Because of this, firms may begin to offer more perks to workers, such as continuing education. For example, employees at IBM’s high-tech development center in Brno received 34,000 hours of specialist training last year, according to the company.
If the economy continues to grow at its current rate of approximately 6 percent, unemployment could drop even lower, said Petr Mach, executive director of the Center for Economics and Politics, a conservative think tank.
But it is unlikely the record low unemployment numbers that came prior to the 1997 financial crisis will ever be bettered. At one point in the mid-1990s, the unemployment rate was lower than 3 percent; that rate was commonly attributed to the failure of state companies to shed superfluous jobs.

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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