Economical

Seven out 10 economically active citizens (69 %) would try to look for concrete job in case they lost their job, almost a quarter of working respondents (28%) would be willing to accept any job in such situation. In September 2006 number of those who would accept any job they were offered was the lowest since year 2003 when this question was used for the first time. Work demands such as work training and qualification, work overtime or faster pace of work are supposed to be acceptable when taking up a job.

As a part of September survey carried out by CVVM SOÚ AV ČR there were some questions focused on unemployment. Unemployment in the Czech Republic is supposed to be too high by almost 6 out of 10 Czech citizens (58%) older 15 years, a third of respondents (35%) consider it as adequate and only 1 % of respondents think the level of unemployment is too low. Almost a half of Czech public (47%) think that level of unemployment will remain unchanged.

7 % of citizens indicated their household to be "rather rich", whilst 30 % consider it to be "rather" (24 %) or "very" (6 %) poor. Almost two thirds of respondents (62 %) regard their household as neither rich nor poor. Problems with current budget of their household were stated by 60 % of respondents, on the other hand 36 % said they have no problems with budget of the household. People see accessibility of education and health care mostly positively, but all other monitored areas of social conditions are evaluated largely critically.

72 % of Czech citizens evaluate current economic level of the Czech Republic positively, when 3 % indicate it as very good and 69 % appraise it as rather good. On contrary 27 % of citizens judge economic level of the Czech Republic critically, when 25 % of these indicate it as rather bad and 2 % see it as very bad. On a ladder with other nine monitored states, Czech Republic took the third place ahead of all post-socialist countries, when the first and second position is occupied by Germany and Austria.

The czech society mostly think that reforms in various areas are necessary.The strongest need for reform is in area of housing and health care system, mainly also in area of pensions , social benefits and taxes.In March 65 % - 70% of respondents agreed with opinion that Czech Republic need radical reforms in all mentioned areas.When talking about concrete problems, they insist on enhancement of social measure.

Housing policy belongs to areas, what most respondents are not satisfied with and this area need principle reform according to most of respondents. More than a half or respondents do not consider existence of two costs of rentals (legal regulated rent and open market rent) as right thing, this opinion is mostly shared by house owners, respondents without their own house or flat and people who pay open market rent.

Czech citizen's awareness of membership of the Czech Republic in WTO is relatively low. Only one third (32 %) of polled people answered correctly that the Czech Republic is a member of WTO, 4 % gave an incorrect answer and 64 % admitted that they don't know. Opinion of Czech public on WTO's influence in economic development of the Czech Republic is rather positive (21 %) or neutral (27 %) than negative.

Citizens of Czech Republic are most positive about current economical situation of their country. 28 % of Czechs suppose current economical situation of Czech Republic to be good, 27 % of people consider it to be bad and 44 % of Czech citizens characterize current economical situation as "neither good nor bad". In other countries critical opinions prevail positive opinions, when Poles evaluate current economical situation of their country most positively, Hungarians are less positive and Slovaks are the least positive.

November survey embraced questions about public opinions on reasons why some people live in poverty in Czech Republic. Respondents had to choose among statements about people living in poverty and say which statement is true.

The statement “some people live in poverty, because they lost their jobs“ was supported by more than two thirds of respondents. Same number of respondents think that some people live in poverty, because they do not want to work.

Nine out of ten citizens of Czech Republic would support salary provided by state for people, who look after old or handicapped family members in their own household. 84% of respondents think, that state should give financial support to enterprises, which make new vacancies. Seven out of 10 Czechs agree with no support for unemployed people, who would refuse to accept less-paid job. Respondents were mostly against charge for seeing a doctor and distribution of medicine, this reform would not be supported by more than three quarters of Czech citizens.