Over the long term a three-quarters majority of the population (76 %) has held the view that in order to tackle unemployment the state should provide only minimal benefits to force people to find work. A similar proportion of citizens (73 %) do not believe that current levels of unemployment and social benefits provide adequate incentive for unemployed people to look for work. Two-thirds of citizens (69 %) do not think that the state should increase unemployment benefits.
This survey was conducted by the STEM non-profit institute (www.stem.cz) on a representative sample of the Czech population aged 18 and over from 4 to 13 May 2016. Respondents were selected using a quota sampling method, with some 1,292 people taking part in the survey.
Since the beginning of the nineties STEM has been monitoring public opinion on state policy to tackle unemployment through the provision of social and unemployment benefits. Over the years, the majority of Czechs have been inclined to believe that the level of state benefits should provide sufficient incentive for the unemployed to seek work but that such benefits should not be set at a level which would lower the living standards of unemployed people too much.
However, do Czech citizens believe that unemployment and social benefits at their current level provide adequate incentive for people who are unemployed to seek work? According to a three-quarters majority of respondents (73 %), current levels of unemployment and social benefits do not provide such an incentive. The majority of people (69 %) also believe that the state should not increase unemployment benefits.
Source: STEM, Economic Forecast 1991-92, Trends 1993-2016
Source: STEM, Trendy 2016/5, 1292 respondents
According to the surveys conducted by STEM, in the years 2004 to 2007 roughly one quarter of citizens considered the level of benefits provided to unemployed individuals to be adequate incentive to look for a job. In 2008 – when Mirek Topolánek’s government was responsible for the policy to tackle unemployment – this proportion increased somewhat, to two-fifths of the population. This remained more or less stable also in the years that followed, with some variations. However, since 2013 the proportion of people who believe that current levels of unemployment and social benefits provide adequate incentive for the jobless to look for work has been decreasing, and it is currently at the same level as it was roughly ten years ago.
Source: STEM, Trends 2004-2016
In the period since 2009 the proportion of the public who agree that the state should increase unemployment benefits has remained relatively stable at just below the forty percent mark. Nonetheless, STEM’s current data indicates a substantial drop in the proportion of people who would be in favour of an increase in unemployment benefits. This development is therefore consistent with STEM’s other findings which reflect developments on the employment market and show that the public currently considers the problem of unemployment to be less acute than in the past.
Source: STEM, Trends 1999-2016
Older people, university graduates and skilled professionals are more likely to believe that current levels of unemployment benefits do not provide enough incentive to look for work and that the state should not increase unemployment benefits.
Source: STEM, Trendy 2016/5, 1292 respondents
*Secondary School Leaving Certificate, equiv. A Levels in the UK, High School Diploma in the US
Source: STEM, Trends 2016/5, 1292 respondents
Source: STEM, Trends 2016/5, 1292 respondents (674 employees)
Among those who have a strong fear of unemployment there is a significantly higher proportion who would welcome an increase in unemployment benefits by the state. However, unlike in the past, this is not even the majority opinion among this group.
Source: STEM, Trends 2016 /5, 1292 respondents