The jobless rate in the Czech Republic fell slightly to 8.6% in August from 8.7% in the previous month, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs reported Wednesday. The unemployment rate in August 2009 was 8.5%.

Job offices registered altogether 501,494 job seekers by the end of August, down 3,790 from July. Newcomers decreased by 4,893 to 50,741. At the same time, job offices terminated registration of 54,531 job seekers.

At the end of August, job offices registered 258,987 female job seekers, that was 51.6% of the unemployed in total. Job offices paid off unemployment benefits to 137,502 job seekers in August, equivalent to 27.4% of all job seekers under registration.