Vliv útlumu těžby černého uhlí v Moravskoslezském kraji na vybrané ekonomické ukazatele v letech 2014-2023

The decline of black coal mining in the Moravian-Silesian Region is represented by selected mining indicators – specifically the volume of black coal extraction and the number of employees of OKD company – which recorded a significant and sustained decrease of more than 70 % compared to the base year over the monitored period of 2014–2023. The values of the region's economic indicators showed a predominantly positive development in 2023 compared to the first year of the monitored period: GDP at current prices increased by approximately 55 %, the average gross monthly wage rose by nearly 70 %, and the unemployment rate declined from 9.80 % to 5.23%. The number of economic entities followed a slightly upward trend for most of the monitored period, with the exception of a significant decline in 2023, which was the result of a legislative change. The conducted comparison of mining and economic indicators through year-on-year percentage changes reveals that the development of economic indicators cannot be unambiguously attributed to the decline of black coal mining during the monitored period – their mutual relationship is complex and was influenced by concurrently operating factors at various stages of the monitored period, such as the national economic cycle, the pandemic, or the energy crisis. Overall, it can be stated that the decline of mining does not affect the regional economy as a one-time shock, but rather as an ongoing long-term structural process. Based on the findings of the thesis, the author presents concluding recommendations, including the timely preparation of a phase-out programme for the key sector, prevention of long-term unemployment risk, and efforts to avoid the dominance of a single industrial sector.