INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONTEMPORARY REGIONAL LABOUR MARKET IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Public institutions are key players in the regional labour markets in the Czech Republic. Their activities are constrained by economic policies, which are aimed at increasing employment and the efficiency of the labour markets. Our analysis uses a questionnaire to collect data from the institutions and evaluate their perception of the regional labour market. The results suggest that active employment policy instruments and passive policy instruments are perceived as inefficient and inappropriate. The unemployed usually have no previous job experience, completed only primary education and are not willing to travel to work. The pressing problem is the quality of education and the generous social benefits that makes employment policy inefficient for the least skilled unemployed. Despite substantial regional socio-economic differences in both analysed regions (the Ústecký Region and the Jihočeský Region), there are no significant differences in the poor evaluation of all the traditional active employment policy instruments. In the more problematic Ústecký Region the emphasis is put on basic issues such as the lack of education and experience of the unemployed. The local labour market issues are dictated by long-term factors such as the lack of job vacancies. In the Jihočeský Region the situation is better. The issue is more one of mobility. The market issues here are more related to the appropriateness of secondary and tertiary education and labour costs. To increase the efficiency of employment policies we recommend improvements to the institutional infrastructure in higher education, which should be oriented towards investment in the quality of human capital.