Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2012, 20(1):13-24 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.355

Visegrad Four Labour Markets and the Economic Crisis

Zuzana Potužáková

Metropolitní univerzita Praha (potuzakova@mup.cz).

The world-wide economic crisis has deeply influenced the Visegrad Four (V4) countries, just as the other European regions. Before the crisis, the V4 region was considered monolithic in many aspects and displaying many of the same attributes. However, the economic crisis has deepened the differences among the V4 member states. The economic crisis has also had an impact on their labour markets. It has been due to the huge openness of their economies depending on export territories in EU-15 Member States. The aim of the paper is to compare the situation on the V4 labour markets before and after the economic crisis. In the first part, we focus on the impacts of the economic crisis in the region. The second part analyzes the labour market indicators such as the employment rates, unemployment rates and unemployment rates of the young population, which is considered to be a severe economic and social problem within the whole EU. The third part deals with the governmental measures to combat the crisis on the labour markets. Finally, we also talk about the labour market rigidities measured by the EPL index. The low labour market flexibility discourages companies from creating new jobs due to complications of potential dismissal. That means that the growth in the employment rates is slower and the unemployment rates persist higher, which has further effects on the fiscal expenditures and economic growth of the countries.

Keywords: economic crisis, labour market, Visegrad Four, employment rate, unemployment rate, EPL index

JEL classification: J08, J68

Published: February 1, 2012  Show citation