The number of people working part-time has not increased much in the Czech Republic over the last two decades, and the country is among the EU countries with the lowest incidence of short-term work, according to experts from the Institute for Democracy and Economic Analysis (IDEA) in a study released yesterday.
The study found that one in ten female workers in the Czech Republic aged 25 to 64 have part-time jobs, most often women in their thirties or those approaching retirement, and more likely to be university graduates. Few Czech men have part-time jobs.
According to the findings, the situation in the Czech Republic is similar to that in other post-communist countries.
“Part-time work plays an important role in employment in many European countries, where it often serves as a tool to reconcile work and family life,” wrote Jakub Grossmann and Daniel Munich in the IDEA study. “In the Czech Republic, however, their use is still low, even compared to similar countries in the region. Czech women, especially mothers of young children, are often faced with the choice between leaving the labour market altogether or returning to full-time work – part-time work remains a relatively unused option.”
The authors drew on data from a 2022 labour force survey and similar surveys from European countries. According to the study, the use of part-time jobs in the Czech Republic has barely changed since the beginning of the century.
In the Netherlands, more than three-fifths of female workers have jobs with shorter hours, in Austria more than half. In Bulgaria, on the other hand, the share is almost zero, said Grossmann.
The Czech Republic has the lowest employment rate of mothers with children up to four years old in the EU, but the highest employment rate of mothers with children over ten years old. When Czech women with young children do work, they choose to work part-time. Employment rises as children grow older due to the transition to full-time work, according to the study.
For men who are working part-time in the Czech Republic, it is not because of childcare, but because of health disadvantages or the inability to find other work.
The low incidence of part-time work in the Czech Republic is due to the lack of access to nurseries and kindergartens, the inadequate supply of care for the elderly, the structure of the economy around shift-based industrial production and a low share of the service sector, the relatively high tax burden on small earnings, and the persistence of the traditional division of roles within families.
According to the report, the Czech Republic could take inspiration from more progressive taxation in the Netherlands, German laws allowing easier transition between full-time and part-time work, or France’s temporary reduction of working hours for family reasons. More jobs should be offered by the public sector.
