Long-term unemployment among people with higher education in the district Strakonice

Long-term unemployment is defined by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a state when individuals are unemployed and look for a job for 12 months or longer. Mainly unskilled labor is threatened by long-term unemployment, individuals with accumulated social and physical handicap, members of minorities and migrants. It does not influence only the person who appears in this social situation ( reduction of living standart of the person and his family, social isolation, loss of social status) and it influences life of his close family as well. Employment and unemployment are defined at the introduction to the theoretical part of the thesis. Next part is focused on solution of this issue in national and international documents with a specific division into active employment policy instruments. Final part describes district Strakonice and highlights the various regions. It evaluates the development of unemplyment among university graduates in the years 2009-2013 and makes a comparison with countrywide data. The objective of this work is to analyze the unemployment among people with university education in district Strakonice in the years 2009-2013 and to answer research questions assessing the impact of the current economic crisis on unemployment of university graduates during assessing their professional status in relation to the financial costs of the employer. For the fulfilment of the objectives there was used a qualitative research method using semi-structured interview technique. There were used two samples. The first one was created by 15 jobseekers with university education registered by the regional branch of the Labour Office CR in České Budějovice- contact office in Strakonice longer than 1 year and the second sample consisted of 30 employers with headquarters in district Strakonice employing more than 25 employees. The survey was carried out in the district of Strakonice from October 2013 to January 2014 under the personal meetings with employers and individual inerviewing with candidates. For each group of communication partners was carried out a preliminary research. Based on the research there was found out that the economic crisis had not a direct impact on long-term unemployment of university graduates. During the interviewing there were mapped other facts which prevent their entry into the labour market ( field of education, lack of practice, age,health, child care, housing in a location with low transport services). Some of these barriers can be influenced by using active employment policy, activity of the unemployed, effective consulting services of workers at the Labour Office. In the monitored years employers mostly did not accept new employees, chances of getting a job were under these circumstances reduced. During finding out whether the university positions are offered to people with secondary education resulted that nowadays employers during tender assess the aplicants more comprehensively and ask besides equivalent qualification for other skills as well. The engineering field can be assessed in a different way, the field is typical for Strakonice district which reports vacancies, whose occupation is problematic because of lack of engineering graduates, to the office for a long time. Mostly big firms cope with this problem and these facts are declared with research reports of National Institute for education. Research , as a byproduct, identified weaknesses in provided consulting services to clients of Labour Office and the proposed publicity for target groups of the projects funded under the European Social Fund. The research results can be used to improve the consulting work with the unemployed . Outputs can be presented on the visits with secondary school students and their educational advisors or use them as sub-material for negotiations with employers, representatives of educational institutions and local government units