Keeping to tradition and folk customs is considered to be important by two thirds of citizens (66 %), while approximately three people out of ten (31 %) have the opposite opinion. Regardless of this, 99 % of households keep to tradition and customs at least in some cases. As far as traditional meals associated with some specific festive occasions are concerned, almost in all households (96 %) the traditional menu is prepared in connection with Christmas Eve, in two thirds at Easter, and in a half of households on New Year’s Day.

Within the 15+ population group there were 44.2% of economically inactive people in the first half of 2003, whilst the biggest proportion consisted of pensioners (23.7%), followed by students and young apprentices (12.3%). The share of the unemployed was 4.8%, housewives and mothers on maternity leave represented 3.4%. In the group of those that were economically active (55.8%), there were 8.

Only 4.4% of respondents over 18 gave a positive answer to the question “Have you worked abroad?”. About a fifth stated that their last work abroad was organised under an international agreement. Others characterised it as daily or weekly commuting or a seasonal job lasting up to three months, or work organised elsewhere. There was a rather large quantity of recorded information on work abroad (35%): a quarter of respondents stated that some of their friends worked there (24%) and another 11% stated that a family member had worked abroad.

Results of our survey show that currently 6% of Czechs are considering working abroad, almost half of them are young people between 15 and 19, with students prevailing in the group. Work abroad is considered by men twice as often as women, further, it is considered by people without dependants, single and lone people. Most Czechs considering work abroad would prefer their destination to be Germany, the USA, the UK or Canada.

Within the group of the 15+ population where the option of unemployment could be first considered, a quarter of them (26%) have experienced unemployment since 1989, while 9% of were unemployed repeatedly. People with basic education (43%) were those who most often experienced unemployment, unlike university graduates where the ratio of those who had ever been unemployed was relatively low (9%).

Our May survey confirmed a low level of professional mobility of our employees: 45% of them have remained in one profession during the course of their lives, a quarter of employees have changed their profession twice at most: 16% once and 9% twice. 7% changed it three times and another 7% more than three times. Respondents who changed their profession at least once gave more detailed information on how many times they had done it since 1989.

A total of three fifths of economically active Czechs work in the town or a village where they also reside, while two fifths commute. Mainly people from villages and small towns commute. More than a half of economically active people (56%) travel between home and work in less than 20 minutes whilst exactly a quarter manage to complete a journey between home and work in less than10 minutes. Another group of more than a quarter of the employed 28% take between twenty and forty minutes to get to work and the remaining 16 % travel to work for an even longer, whilst 3% need more than an hour to complete one journey.

In June 2003 the president enjoyed confidence of 63 % of citizens older than 15 years, the government was trusted by

5 %, Chamber of Deputies by 30 %, Senate by 26 %, their regional council by 41 % and their local council by 65 % of citizens. More than a half of Czech citizens (57 %) trusts the Supreme inspection authority and confidence prevails also in the cases of Public guardian of rights (trusted by 45 %, distrusted by 28 %) and Constitutional court (trusted by 47 %, distrusted by 34 %).

In late June, 20% of those polled were satisfied with the political situation, 32% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 45% of respondents were dissatisfied. People with good living standards and young people under 30 years of age more frequently belonged to the group of the satisfied. As regards political orientation, the level of satisfaction is higher among sympathisers of the ODS, CSSD and the KDU-CSL.

Compared to the results obtained a month ago, the preferences of the ODS fell slightly during June, in spite of which the party remains in the lead, keeping a comfortable margin. As regards the KSCM, the party suffered a considerable drop in preferences. None of the political parties recorded a major increase in popularity and there are now more people who would not participate in an election and could not choose a political party.