How the labour market uncertainty affects childbearing in the Czech Republic?

Olga Sivkova, Charles University in Prague

The contribution focuses on the relation between labour market uncertainty and fertility level in the Czech Republic in the period 1993-2012. The Czech Republic belongs to groups of countries which underwent profound socio-economic transformation after the collapse of communism at the end of 80’s in the 20th century and are affected by worldwide economic downturn in the last few years. In addition, fertility level is far behind the value necessary for the population renewal. Whereas the total fertility rate equalled to 1.67 children per woman in 1993, the rate fell down to 1.45 children per woman in 2012 with minimum value 1.13 children per woman in 1999. The research aims to disentangle possible impact of labour market uncertainly on the low fertility level. Therefore, both specific and general aspects of labour market uncertainty and demographic reproduction in the Czech Republic are discussed and analysis at macro and micro level considering fertility development are performed. While macro approach is based on time-series data issued by the Czech Statistical Office, to examine micro factors individual data of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the Czech Republic 2008-2011 are utilized.