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9 - Skills Shortage, Emigration and Unemployment in Poland: Causes and Implications of Disequilibrium in the Polish Labour Market

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2021

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Summary

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to scrutinise the apparently overlapping research problems of skill shortage, emigration and unemployment in Poland, focusing both on the causes and implications of disequilibrium in the Polish labour market. The chapter shows that there is no straightforward relationship (or correlation) between skill shortages and the outflow of people. Rather, the outflow of people (including seasonal, pendulum migration) is one among a set of factors that impacts skill shortages in Poland and cannot be analysed separately from these other factors.

The first section of the chapter provides an overview of labour market adjustments and associated challenges in Poland by tracking the process of transition in Poland. The second section sets out the concepts of structural mismatches, shortages and gaps as grounded in theory by approaching four main interpretations connected to: 1) turbulence in the economy; 2) the lack of equilibrium in micro markets; 3) the mismatch of ineffective allocations of labour and 4) the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment (NAIRU) as connected to labour resources. This section also examines regional variations and divergences of the labour market in Poland. The third section refers to internal migration within, and emigration from, Poland after 1 May 2004. Section four takes into account economic gaps as a characteristic of changes and challenges in the Polish labour market, including analysis of the barriers to growth of companies as reported by employers. Finally, section five synthesises the set of factors identified across the analysis that cause skill shortages, highlighting both their short- and long-term implications for the Polish labour market.

A synopsis of labour market adjustments and challenges in Poland

The transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy has been accompanied by far-reaching changes in the labour market. According to Dorenbos (1999: 1):

Excess demand for labour and shortage of labour were replaced by a surplus of labour and shortage of jobs. Consequently, unemployment emerged and grew rapidly: former centrally planned economy converted from ‘job rights’ economy to ‘job search’ economy.

The next stage of this transformation seems to be a move to a ‘skill search’ economy.

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Chapter
Information
A Continent Moving West?
EU Enlargement and Labour Migration from Central and Eastern Europe
, pp. 187 - 206
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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