The average unemployment rate in the EU is 7.7%. In Czech Republic if 2.9% in June 2007, according to this article in Quartz Magazine. This is because of relatively low hourly wages (about 40% of EU average) and government incentives set in the 1990's to increase employment. Czech Republic has a lot of manufacturing industry. A lot of cars are assembled in the country these days. While manufacturing is big in Czech Republic, the country is lagging behind in the knowledge sector compared to the rest of OECD. According to the European Commission, Czech Republic was lagging behind the rest of the EU in terms of percentage of the population aged 30-34 having tertiary educational attainment (Czech Republic 32.8%, EU average 39.1%) in the year 2016. This could be a problem in the future if automation starts leading to job losses in the manufacturing sector. According to the Quartz article, Czech Republic has an aging population and there are labor shortages in many fields and red tape is preventing companies from recruiting foreign workers. As a result, wages have been increasing faster than productivity in recent times.
I was surprised that unemployment was that low in Czech Republic. But maybe I shouldn't have because when I visited Brno in 2003, it became clear to me that the local price level was low and thus wages must have been. Czech Republic neighbours Germany, a large high-income country with a lot of German manufacturing industry outsourced to it. I remember having a nice steak dinner for a mere 6 euros in a hotel in Brno, the second largest city of the country back in 2003. As the EU stats I referred to, tertiary education attainment has been increasing markedly Czech Republic in recent years. It probably won't take long before prices will start rising in Czech Republic. As a travel destination Czech Republic offers huge value for money. It is at the heart of Europe and has wonderful architecture to boot. The country has probably the best mass-marketed beer in the world. The Average Josef in Czech Republic would not drink the kind of piss the Average Joe in America drinks. North America, the Nordic countries and Scotland probably still have the best craft beers in the world, however.
