The Burning Problem of Unemployment

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the phenomenon of unemployment in Poland and in the world as the basic problem of economic policy. The issue of unemployment itself results from the equilibrium between demand and supply on the labour market in a given economy and it has an objective character: “unemployment may be eliminated only by way of perfect competition.” This kind of competition cannot be accomplished, therefore in each economy there is a margin of unemployment. It may be regarded as normal (this means it does not call for the state’s intervention), if it results from the economic and concerns 5-6% of the unemployed. There are economies, however, and Poland is now one of them, where unemployment has a structural character and has remained at a very high level (at the moment 17-18%). Unemployment is also structural in the majority of UE countries, but at a lower level. The paper depicts numerous comparative tables of the state and dynamism of unemployment in Poland and UE countries, including a discussion of the main factors that are conducive to unemployment, focusing especially on the situation in Poland.

The author analyses the prospects of unemployment in Poland and puts forward a hypothesis that owing to its profoundly structural unemployment this state of affairs will remain for several years. The rate of unemployment, which is likely to fall, will not be higher than 1-1.5 per cent annually. It follows from this fact that the battle against unemployment must be indirect and directed above all at the factors which make this state of affairs linger on, whereas demand for jobs is small.