TABLE-Czech Oct jobless rate dips m/m to 7.4 pct

    Nov 8 (Reuters) - The Czech unemployment rate dipped to 7.4 
percent of the workforce in October from 7.8 percent a month 
earlier, the Labour Ministry said on Wednesday in the release of 
the data under EU-harmonised methodology. 
    The October figure was slightly below the 7.5 percent 
forecast of analysts polled by Reuters <CZ/ECON04> <CZ/ECON15>. 
     
CZECH UNEMPLOYMENT           OCT 06      SEPT 06       OCT 05 
 pct of workforce             7.4          7.8          8.5 
 number of available 
  jobless                   408,277      427,331      459,893 
 total number of jobless    439,788      454,182      491,878 
     
    NOTE. The number of available jobless shows how many people 
registered as unemployed by labour offices are able to start 
work shortly. The total number of jobless is for all jobless 
registered by labour offices. 
    To harmonise data with the EU after the Czechs joined the 
bloc in May 2004, the labour ministry started publishing data in 
line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, 
which use only the number of available jobless to calculate the 
unemployment rate. 
    This same method is used by Eurostat, the EU's statistical 
agency. 
     
 (Reporting by Mirka Krufova in Prague) 
 ((For past economic data and analysts' forecasts, double click 
on <CZ/ECON01> or <CZ/ECON15>)) 
 ((Editing by Alan Crosby; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters 
Messaging: mirka.krufova.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420 224 190 
477)) 
  Keywords: ECONOMY CZECH JOBLESS TABLE