Comparison of unemployment rate in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the period 2004-2017

This Bachelor’s thesis is analysing the developments of unemployment and long term unemployment in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic during the period 2004- 2017 with special attention paid to threatened groups of unemployed with primary education and elder unemployed above 55 years of age. Theoretical part of the thesis is devoted to the phenomenon of unemployment from the viewpoint of different theoretic economic schools with neoclassical paradigm being the background for further analysis. Special attention is paid to main factors causing unemployment focusing also on the hysteresis effect on the labor market. Practical part of the thesis is focused on the developments of unemployment in both countries with special attention paid to risky groups mentioned above. Regional disparities in both countries are analysed trying to explain the relationships between differences of the unemployment rates in both countries by the impact of the respective risky groups. The most important finding seems to be that the high concentration of both total and long-term unemployment of people with the lowest qualification and education in regions hit worst by unemployment in Slovakia is the key factor that causes higher unemployment and the long term unemployment in the Slovak Republic. The last chapter is trying to suggest some recommendations for economic policy – some of them being generally valid for both countries, some try to be tailored to the problems of the Slovak labor market.