TABLE-Czech Dec jobless rate rises m/m to 7.7 pct

    The Czech unemployment rate rose to 7.7 
percent of the workforce in December from 7.3 percent a month 
earlier, the Labour Ministry said on Tuesday in the release of 
the data under EU-harmonised methodology. 
    The December figure was in line with/above/below the 7.7 
percent forecast of analysts polled by Reuters  
. 
     
CZECH UNEMPLOYMENT           DEC 06       NOV 06       DEC 05 
 pct of workforce             7.7          7.3          8.9 
 number of available 
  jobless                   421,286      400,044      481,071 
 total number of jobless    448,545      432,573      510,416 
     
    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  or )) 
 ((Editing by Alan Crosby; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters 
Messaging: mirka.krufova.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420 224 190 
477)) 
  Keywords: CZECH ECONOMY/JOBLESS  
    

[Reuters/Finance.cz]