Learning by Working

In the Czech Republic, social exclusion in the labour market is concentrated among some specific categories of people, young Roma being among those who are the most disadvantaged. The unemployment rates both of the total population and the young population is below the EU average. The general unemployment rate increased from 4.4 per cent in 2007 to above 7 per cent in 2009, remaining there until 2013 (the EU-28 average was close to 11 per cent in 2013), and then dropping to 5–6 per cent by 2015. The unemployment rate of the young has been considerably higher than the general unemployment rate: 10 percent in 2007 but increasing to 18–19 per cent in 2013 (EU-28 average was 23.7 per cent) and dropping to about 13 per cent in 2015. ¹ Some categories of young people face a greater unemployment risk: the specific unemployment rates of low educated (ISCED 0–2) in the groups 20–24 and 25–29 were both close to 40 per cent (European Commission 2012). Similarly, the Roma population is highly affected by unemployment and social exclusion risks. According to a survey by the European Agency of Fundamental Rights in 2011 (FRA 2016), 31 per cent of Roma aged 20–64 were looking for a job and 66 per cent of Roma had experienced unemployment during the previous five years, compared to 24 per cent of the non-Roma living in their neighbourhoods. The self-reported unemployment rate was estimated at about 37 per cent among Roma and 8 per cent among non-Roma (FRA 2012). At the same time, 39 per cent of those Roma who had been looking for a job during the previous 12 months reported that they had been discriminated against in access to jobs – this is the highest figure of all the surveyed countries in Europe where larger shares of Roma are living (FRA 2016).