A typical foreign worker in the Czech Republic is a man aged 30 to 40
As reported by Radio Prague, the top places in the labor market among foreigners are occupied by Ukrainians, Slovaks, and Vietnamese. The Czech Republic also employs many citizens of Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.
Analyst of the Czech Statistical Office Jarmila Marešová reported that at the end of 2018, the number of foreign workers in the Czech Republic was 567 thousand people. Of these, almost 290 thousand had permanent residence, 275 thousand had temporary residence, and 2.5 thousand had refugee status. Every third foreigner employed in the Czech Republic is a citizen of Slovakia, every fifth is from Ukraine.
"Due to the shortage of labor resources in recent years, mass economic migration is growing, primarily from EU countries. Since citizens of Eastern European EU countries face much fewer administrative obstacles, they are displacing labor migrants from non-EU countries. The exception here is Ukrainians, whose number, especially recently, is growing significantly," said Jarmila Marešová.
When counting the number of working foreigners, the statistics do not include people who work while entering the country on tourist visas, as well as foreigners who are employed on the basis of the right to free movement and do not register with the foreign police. Currently, EU citizens make up almost two-thirds of all foreign citizens working in the Czech Republic.
"A new trend is the rapid growth in the number of Romanians, Bulgarians, and, to a lesser extent, Hungarians, i.e., EU citizens," said Dalibor Holý, director of the Department of Labor Market Statistics and Equal Opportunities of the Czech Statistical Office.
Among foreign workers, people of younger and middle age predominate, mainly from 30 to 40 years old. The number of women is lower than men, and they belong to a younger age group. Only 5.4% of foreign citizens working in the Czech Republic are over 65 years old.
29.5% of foreign workers are employed in industrial enterprises. 17.6% hold various administrative positions. 10% each are in retail and wholesale trade, and 9% in construction.
"It can be stated that there is no discrimination in the Czech Republic in terms of salaries based on citizenship, that is, there is no such thing that a person receives a lower salary due to foreign citizenship. On the contrary, in areas requiring high qualifications, foreigners earn more. For example, in the field of information technology and communications, the average gross salary of the small group of Bulgarians and Romanians working there is 65 thousand crowns," emphasized Dalibor Holý.
Ukrainians in the Czech Republic earn five times more for the same work than they would be paid at home. According to Dalibor Holý, sometimes foreigners earn even more than Czechs, but due to extra time. "They work more overtime because they come here to earn money and devote maximum time to it. On average, a foreigner's working day is longer than that of a Czech citizen," the expert said.