Economical

The January census of the CPOR surveyed the satisfaction of the public with the approved state budget. Questions were aimed both at the satisfaction with the fact that the Czech Republic has an approved state budget for 2004 and also at the formulation of the budget. The survey showed that the general public’s attitude to the fact that the budget had been approved was relatively positive. Only 11% of Czechs considered this fact as being bad, contrary to 42% who thought it was good.

As respondents stated, 4% of households purchased a new flat last year, 8% bought a new car, 29% went on a holiday abroad and 46% bought new furnishings. 3% of households plan to buy a new flat in 2004, 4% want to buy a new car, 31% plan to buy a holiday abroad and 35% are already planning to purchase new furnishings. The survey further showed that 38% of respondents stated that they could not put money aside towards monthly savings and 32% evaluated their monthly savings to be as little as only up to a thousand Czech Crowns.

In our November survey we asked several questions concerning unemployment; 7 out of 10 respondents indicated that the current level of unemployment in our country was too high, one quarter of Czechs believe that it is adequate and only 1% of our inhabitants consider it to be too low. One quarter of Czech citizens think that the unemployed in our country cannot find any work. A half of respondents think that the unemployed cannot find suitable work and the opinion of the remaining quarter of respondents was that the unemployed were simply not interested in finding work.

In the October census carried out by the Centre for Public Opinion Research respondents expressed the level of their support for individual groups. The largest share of support was allocated to small private entrepreneurs (electricians, heating engineers, seamstresses, etc), followed by owners of mall shops and doctors. A mostly negative response was detected towards senior politicians, foreign owners of companies and senior officials and civil servants.

The view of the Czech general public on entrepreneurs is clearly differentiated depending on whether it is owners of small, medium or large enterprise that are in question. Generally it can be said that people appreciate owners of small and medium enterprise much more than large companies. People usually reckon that both groups of entrepreneurs “have the courage to take risks and to explore unknown fields”, they perceive them as “enterprising, clever people with good ideas” and they think that “they work many hours per day, at the expense of the time that could be spend with the family or just on themselves”, the majority of the general public however think that it is a typical feature for large-scale entrepreneurs to search for loopholes in the law, to jointly prevent price reductions, to be closely connected to current politicians, to be recruited from the previous nomenclature, to be ruthless in destroying their competitors, and to acquired their property in a fraudulent way.

32% of those who were asked indicated that the standard of living of their household was good, contrary to the opinion of 25%, and 43 % of respondents characterised it as neither good nor bad. Compared to all previous polls from 2003 this shows a rather significant setback in the subjective evaluation of the standard of living of households, which in the past indicated that up to two fifths of respondents considered it to be good and less than one fifth had the opposite opinion.

More than three quarters of Czechs are satisfied with the level of interesting aspects of their jobs and with relationships between people at their workplace. More than a half of employees also were satisfied with the care received from their employer, with material possessions and equipment at the workplace, with the way their work is organised, with its intensity, with their line-manager, and with the extent to which their expertise is used.

More than three quarters of Czechs are satisfied with the level of interesting aspects of their jobs and with relationships between people at their workplace. More than a half of employees also were satisfied with the care received from their employer, with material possessions and equipment at the workplace, with the way their work is organised, with its intensity, with their line-manager, and with the extent to which their expertise is used.

The June survey allocated some of its space for opinions of respondents on situation of the owners of small and medium size enterprises. The results show that two fifths (41%) consider the objections raised by the concerned groups to be justified. 28% think the opposite and almost a third (31%) do not feel to be competent to judge. Those respondents who believe that the objections raised by entrepreneurs were justified also commented on the question if certain bodies should help to solve their problems.

Within the 15+ population group there were 44.2% of economically inactive people in the first half of 2003, whilst the biggest proportion consisted of pensioners (23.7%), followed by students and young apprentices (12.3%). The share of the unemployed was 4.8%, housewives and mothers on maternity leave represented 3.4%. In the group of those that were economically active (55.8%), there were 8.