The lack of craftsmen has long plagued the Czechia, and the situation is still not improving. According to experts, on the contrary, the crisis is deepening, now there are already over 400,000 craftsmen missing from the market. The situation is worst in Prague, where the situation is significantly worse than in the rest of the country. And the improvement is not waiting for us right away.
Today, finding a quality craftsman is a matter of several months. Tilers, stackers, welders, tinsmiths, but also other professions are missing the most. “For example, with painters, it takes two to three months if a customer needs to paint one room, but maybe half a year or more if he wants to paint an entire apartment,” describes the problem, director of the Jarov Secondary Vocational School, Miloslav Janeček.
“You have to wait more than half a year for a tiler, a customer can look for a roofer, carpenter or tinsmith for even a year, you can wait even two years for a chimney sweep,” he added.
The crisis with artisans is plaguing the whole of the Czechia, but the worst situation is in the capital. This follows from the data of the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ) for the second quarter of last year. At that time, the office registered over 800,000 craftsmen and repairmen in the Czech Republic. There are approximately 76 of them per thousand inhabitants (according to the number of inhabitants as of January 1, 2022).
Prague, with its 47.6 thousand craftsmen, is thus far below the average, with only 37 craftsmen per thousand inhabitants. The second worst is the Karlovy Vary region, where there are approximately 67 craftsmen and repairmen per thousand inhabitants.
| End | Number of craftsmen and repairmen for the 2nd quarter of 2022 (in thousands) | Converted to 1,000 inhabitants |
| Prague | 47,6 | 37,3 |
| Central Bohemia | 106,7 | 76,9 |
| South Bohemian | 57,1 | 89,6 |
| Pilsen | 53 | 91,6 |
| Karlovy Vary | 19 | 67,1 |
| Ústí | 58 | 72,6 |
| Liberecký | 36,1 | 82,5 |
| Královéhradecky | 43,3 | 79,8 |
| Pardubice | 41,2 | 80,1 |
| Highlands | 45,4 | 90,1 |
| South Moravian | 94,8 | 80 |
| Olomouc | 55,2 | 88,6 |
| Zlínský | 54,9 | 95,9 |
| Moravian-Silesian | 88,2 | 74,9 |
| In total | 800,5 | 76,1 |
| Source: CZSO |
The growing demand for the services of craftsmen also increases their financial evaluation, and for this reason, the interest of pupils in academic fields increases every year. However, we do not expect a significant improvement in the foreseeable future.
“I am afraid that the improvement will take place very slowly, because there is still a very strong departure of retiring older craftsmen. It will take a very long time to replace them with young beginners,” predicts Janeček.
”Furthermore, many graduates of academic fields leave shortly after their apprenticeship, i.e. at a time when they have very little experience, and thus still low financial remuneration in companies. If at that moment they receive an offer to work as a driver for a higher financial remuneration, they often cannot resist and they leave,” he explained.
Companies or regions also help to attract pupils to trades. For example, the Zlín region finances the program Support for crafts in vocational education, under which scholarships are paid to students of selected fields, such as bricklayer, plumber, carpenter or painter and varnisher.
Craftsmen who have been in short supply in the Czech Republic for a long time include, for example, chimney sweeps:
TN.cz
