Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started a year ago, the Czech Republic has granted 500,000 protection visas to Ukrainians, mainly women and children. Photo: KK for Brno Daily.
Prague, Feb 20 (CTK) – A total of 94,400 refugees from Ukraine had jobs in the Czech Republic by the end of January, Katerina Berankova, the spokeswoman for the job office general directorate, has told journalists.
In all, 190,400 people with temporary protection found jobs last year. Some of them have returned to their homeland, others have left the job, Berankova said.
Seven out of ten workers are women. Most often, the refugees occupy low-skilled positions.
They mainly face language barriers in their search for more skilled jobs.
Labour and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurecka (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) recently said by the end of last year, the refugees paid almost eight billion crowns in the form of payment to the welfare system.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Interior Ministry has granted 488,200 protection visas, mostly to women and children.
Those having the protection visas can work without any problems and permits in the Czech Republic.
Berankova said by the end of January, 190,356 arrivals had found jobs in the Czech Republic, with 132,573 women among them.
By the end of last month, there were 94,383 people protection visas, most of them, over 16,200, in the Central Bohemia Region, followed by the Plzen Region with 13,900 employed refugees and South Moravia with 10,000.
These people most often work in the transport, construction and engineering industries.
“In certain areas, the employers gained the staff they needed,” Beranova said.
“The people paid over four billion crowns to the health insurance last year. In all, if all the payments are counted, this was roughly eight billion. The help that was paid from the state budget is gradually returning,” Jurecka said.
By the end of January, job offices also registered 16,300 Ukrainian job seekers, about 900 more than in December, making up 5 percent of all job seekers.
The employment of Ukrainian refugees is on the rise in Czechia, with most of them working full-time and frequently in auxiliary and manual jobs, despite higher qualifications, according to an analysis conducted by agency PAQ Research last autumn.
A quarter of refugees worked part-time. The majority of arrivals worked at least 30 hours a week.
Two-fifths of the employed have jobs well below their qualifications, and almost 25 percent are in slightly less qualified positions.
About a half of technical and professional workers, and more than 25 percent who were formerly in managerial and specialist positions, now work in auxiliary or blue-collar jobs.
Job offices contribute to courses of Czech. So far, they have been entered by 2,838 refugees and finished by 2,007.
($1 = 22.318 crowns)
pvr/dr
