Job creation and labour market flexibility: miracle or mirage on the Polish labour market?

Abstract

Poland's post‐communist economic performance has been generally good. However, for many years, its growth was jobless; it exhibited very high unemployment rates and made little progress towards the targets set for EU Member States and accession countries. Unexpectedly, in 2003, the country's labour market began to exhibit a new dynamism, with employment growing strongly and unemployment tumbling. This apparent improvement coincided with a liberalisation of its Labour Code. Unfortunately, the measures introduced to increase flexibility are at variance with the EU's Fixed‐term Work Directive and will likely need to be modified, which may conceivably reverse the recent developments that form the focus of this article.

Fallen Heroes in Global Capitalism

“…Workers bore the costs of flexibility by an increase in the number of precarious forms of employment. Fixed-term work contracts are a widespread phenomenon, concerning all educational levels and ages (Ingham and Ingham, 2011 ). But also the working poor has become a reality; more than half of the Polish population lives under the social minimum.…”

Towards Eurosclerosis: Will Poland Escape?

“…As such, the issue is not pursued, with further detail on the legal position in Poland to be found in Portet (2005) and Portet and Sztandar-Sztanderska (2007) and a more general discussion in Booth et al (2002). migration was not impossible prior to accession and freedom of movement probably served simply to legitimise some portion of it that was formerly illegal (Ingham and Ingham, 2011).…”

“…Furthermore, the fall in unemployment in Poland was more or less matched by the increase in employment, which casts considerable doubt on international labour movements being the motive force behind the post‐2004 developments. In addition, migration was not impossible prior to accession and freedom of movement probably served simply to legitimise some portion of it that was formerly illegal (Ingham and Ingham, ).…”

Making the Labour Market Work Better in Poland

“…While greater labour market flexibility might have fuelled employment growth between 2003 and 2007 (Ingham and Ingham, 2011), such profound dualism has its flip side and is likely to weigh heavily on other aspects of economic performance. The extensive use of temporary contracts might be detrimental to investment in human-capital formation by both employers and employees.…”

“…Although significant, this increase in emigration flows had only a mild short-to-medium-term impact on the Polish labour market (see, among others, Budnik, 2008, Ingham and Ingham, 2011, Kaczmarczyk and Okolski, 2008, and Kaczmarczyk, 2012. It is true that during the 2004-08 period the unemployment rate decreased sharply (Figure 1, Panel D).…”