Unemployment in the Czech Republic grew by 0.2 percentagepoint to 8.7 percent in July after falling for four straight months, the Labourand Social Affairs Ministry announced today.

Labour offices registered 505,284 jobless as of July 31, 4,784 more than atend-June. Year-on-year, the number of unemployed grew by 19,965.

Analysts had expected such development. They believed unemployment wouldgrow due to the inflow of fresh school graduates to labour offices.

Labour offices at end-July had in their files 495,276 unemployed ready tostart to work immediately, 7,543 more than a month earlier and 19,716 more thanin July 2009.

There were 15.2 job seekers per vacancy on average in June.

Source: Czech Ministry of Labour