Mismatch on the Labour Market in the CENTROPE Region

The CENTROPE region covers eight regions in four countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Considering the situation on the labour market in CENTROPE, it is necessary to emphasize a high level of heterogeneity. Theoretically, it provides a potential for cross-border cooperation. In this text, we focus on skill mismatch and regional mismatch that contribute significantly to unemployment within CENTROPE. The main aim of this paper is to determine what proportion of unemployment in selected occupations could be avoided if the unemployed were perfectly mobile across CENTROPE regions. Our analysis is based on a unique dataset, the so-called Labour Market Monitoring Tool in CENTROPE that is a joint project of Mendel University and the CENTROPE Office Czech Republic. As a result, we have identified occupation with a high, medium and low potential for commuting within CENTROPE. The identification of these occupations was executed by two ways of calculation: the Potential percentage of unemployed reduction and the Mismatch index.