Vanishing 'golden' Czech hands
The Czech labor ministry has found a couple of ways to fake its unemployment numbers, as we wrote last week, but young people aren't among those benefiting on paper from this sleight of hand. The official Czech unemployment rate in Oct. was only 7.3%, but the rate for youth under 25 was 20.7%. That is a shocking figure, even if it is less than half the rate for Spain (55.9%). In contrast, the youth jobless rate in Germany is only 8.1% and in Austria 8.5%. Speaking at the Student Summit in Prague over the weekend, Tomáš Ervín Dombrovský of LMC (Jobs.cz, Prace.cz) attributed this in part to the way German and Austrian companies are directly involved in the educational process. The CR, for its part, abolished its apprenticeship program in 1994. Czech industry has benefited from foreign and domestic investment because of its "golden" Czechs hands, but how long can this last if these hands aren't being replenished?
Glossary of difficult words
to vanish - to gradually cease to exist;sleight of hand - skillful deception; manual dexterity, typically in performing tricks;
apprenticeship - a period of learning a trade from a skilled employer at a low wage;
to replenish - to restore (a stock or supply of something) to the former level or condition.