Textile industry in difficulties

Textile and apparel industry in Croatia is in extremely bad situation considering complex conditions of workers and especially technology. Despite government initiatives industry is s till in crisis. Layoffs, salary cuts and increasing pressure from other cheaper textile imports are the main problems. Also textile and apparel industry have difficulties in marketing its products to the domestic market. Only companies which have made substantial investments and have already modernised their manufacturing technology have good prospects. So, what should they do in the future?

Primarily, textile and apparel companies should look at themselves and notice that, at the moment, they are not managing to adapt to existing requirements of changing market conditions. Also they are slow in recognizing future needs of potential customers, modernizing and restructuring production.
One of the proposed solutions is to produce value-added products and own brand products, as well as the consolidation of textile and apparel companies. We need changes in human resources, innovation and market repositioning and all that has to match with capacity of the industry. It’s necessary, for each of this solutions, to invest financial capital but at this moment industry does not have it. Half of the market share is determined for only a few companies and in this industry only they operate with a profit. Althought the textile and apparel industry in Europe applied policy for sustainable growth and development of such industries, in Croatia there is still no scientifically based economic and social platform for the reconstruction of the textile and apparel industry. That implies a number of various consequences like manufacturers of textiles and apparel industry are importing 90% of raw materials for production.

For now, textile and apparel industry in Croatia is trying to overcome the global recession by relying on state aid and on the financing of production facilities. Various production and bussines models helped textile apparel industry in EU to make positive results so Croatian industy should follow the lead of these industries. At this moment, the industry has two main goals ahead of EU accession: to change production structures according to higher quality price brackets and to improve business operations and apply innovations and knowledge.

Source: http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/112289

Authors: Ivana Mišura, Antonella Cassarà, Tedi Marković and Isabel Tina Braun.

The Great Recession and the current situation

The Great recession is a global economic decline that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008.

The outbreak phase of the crisis, manifested as a liquidity crisis.

The bursting of the U.S. housing bubble caused the values of securities tied to U.S. real estate pricing  to plummet, damaging financial institutions globally.

The global recession has affected the entire world economy , with greater difference to some countries than others.

The proximate cause of the crisis in 2008 was the failure or risk of failure at major financial institutions globally. The European housing bubbles began to deflate during the 2007-2009 period, depending on the country.

The origin of these housing bubbles involves two major factors:

-Low interest rates in the U.S. and Europe following the 2000-2001 U.S. recession;

– Significant growth in savings available from developing nations due to ongoing trade imbalances.

These factors caused a large increase in demand for high-yield investments. Large investment banks  fueling housing bubbles in the U.S. and Europe

The crisis in Europe generally progressed from banking system crises to sovereign debt crises, as many countries elected to bailout their banking systems using taxpayer money.

Several countries received bailout packages from the European Commission, and European Central Bank, which also implemented a series of emergency measures, but five years after this great recession the world economy is still struggling to recover.

During 2012 a growing number of developed economies have fallen into a double-dip recession:

– firms and households is holding back normal credit flows and consumer and

investment demand;

-unemployment remains high;

-fiscal austerity responses to deal with rising public debts are further deterring economic growth, which in turn is making a return to debt sustainability all the more difficult;

-bank exposure to sovereign debts and the weak economy are perpetuating financial sector fragility, which in turn is spurring continued deleveraging.

This are the causes and the current situations.

 

 

 

 

Authors: Antonella Cassarà, Tedi Marković, Isabel Tina Braun, Ivana Mišura 

Sources:

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_archive/2012wespupdate.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_economic_crisis

 

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for Croatian labour market?

It is well known that the world, in general, is in enormous economical crisis. Some countries, however, have found a way to recover and start building up for the future.
Croatia is not among those lucky few countries.

Corruption, nepotism, lack of vision by the politicians, very little production and many other negative factors  took its toll on the quality of living in this country. Considering the time length of this economic crisis we can easily say that for Croatia recession has grown into something we have all been trying to avoid – an ever lasting depression.
The government has introduced all kinds of taxes, stifling its own citizen’s purchase power, which is now very low, unemployment rate is among the worst ones in all of Europe and it is also worth noting that Croatia is one of the most centralized countries in Europe.

 

With all that being said, it is quite natural that thousands and thousands of people are leaving the country in despair. Everyone is hoping the situation will improve after the country finally enters the European Union on 1st of July this year (2013), but there are already some predictions that many member countries have decided to impose restrictions for Croatian people seeking for employment. So they are turning to other options like Australia and in larger part – Canada.

Canada has 67 immigration programs for legal staying, out of which more than 50 for those who have already received a work permit for long-term stay. The good news is that the local authorities annually issue 275 work permits for the Croatians under the Working Holiday programme in Canada which all Croatian citizens in the age range of 18-35, without criminal record and who can prove that they are in posession of 2500 Canadian dollars for a new beginning can apply for. That’s the most common way the Croats get legally employed when they decide to move across the Atlantic. They obtain a work permit, which is not tied to a specific employer, upon arrival find any kind of job, and then seek for better employment. Canada introduced the aforementioned programme for Croatia in June 2011 and next year it is realistic to expect a multitude of applications for it.

The crisis that has been affecting Europe and the rest of the world has seen many nations watch their citizens pack their bags and try their luck across the Atlantic, but only the Croats managed to get close to the gigantic countries like China, India, Pakistan and dictatored North Korea. Just for comparison, Croatia is right behind India, a nation with population of over 1.2 billion people when it comes to seeking an asylum in Canada. In the first 9 months only of the year 2012, 510 Croats applied for asylum in Canada, a little bit less than the citizens of India – 534.

So a million dollar question is: can Croatians weather the storm and refrain from continuous emigration in pursuit of better life?

Sources:

http://www.jutarnji.hr/zbog-boljeg-zivota-hrvati-spremni-i-lagati-da-ih-u-domovini-zlostavljaju-/1068337/

http://www.dzs.hr/default_e.htm

Authors: Tedi Marković, Isabel Tina Braun, Ivana Mišura and Antonella Cassarà

The global situation on labour market

In the fifth year after the outbreak of the global financial crisis, global growth has decelerated and the effect is still continuing. Unemployment has started to increase again.  According to The United Nations,  the number of unemployed in the world reached 197 million in 2012 and was expected to increase further. According to the report, this year unemployment will rise to 5.1 million.

Sources:

http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_171681.pdf

If the economic and labor market trends continue in this way, there is a big risk. The ILO projects 400 million new entrants into labour markets over the next ten years . 400 million new jobs will be needed simply for prevent a further increase in global unemployment.

International Labour Organization, about 39 million people in the labor market is predicted taken. General Director Guy Ryder of ILO   has stated that uncertain economic situations and policies are insufficient to prevent it. In this instance have resulted in lost into investment and low demand for employment force.

According to ILO report at the beginning of the world is most affected by unemployment are young people. About 13 percent of those under the age of 24 is unemployed. The lowest unemployment rate among young people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/turkce/haberler/2013/01/130122_un_turkey_unemployment.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16695096

Written by Latife Cansu Bayar, Eyüp Dönderalp, Lucija Kacin and Lenka Filova

European Focus on Labour Market

The EU labour market in 2011 was marked by a sudden interruption of the timid recovery in employment. Employment started falling in the mid of 2011 amid a reduction of job finding rates and a new process of job shedding concerning most of the EU, with job separations surging in a few countries, notably Greece and Portugal. The current weakening of the labour market is mostly the result of worsening economic activity linked to the aggravation of the sovereign crisis. About 40% of the growth in unemployment for the overall EU since 2008 is due to the massive increase in Spanish unemployment. After four years with the beginning of the financial crisis, finding job rates remain low in most member counties. Youth unemployment rates increased dramatically in Greece, Portugal, Spain. Since the start of the crisis, most EU countries have taken an active reform stance, and managed in some cases to pass ambitious reform plans. Some countries have high unemployment and large external imbalances for this reason they try to improve their responsibility and labour market adjustment by reforming their job protection. Unemployment is becoming a very serious issue in a number of EU countries, with increasingly visible economic, social and political implications. The rate of the unemployment should be decreased that’s why the countries should create new conditions for the build up trust and to keep it labour demand on the stable basis. In several countries, these reforms usually politically were recently carried out within the framework of structural adjustment programmes. For examples Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal, took measures. Also in this countries by taking new tax reforms, could create the conditions for better mobilising labour supply and demand. In the countries should concerned by high youth unemployment policies and also focus on easing the school-work transition, including by an effective use of apprenticeship systems.On the basis of increasing poverty and social exclusion, increasing unemployment and reduced income lies.After the increase of the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area, investments and consumption decisions have influenced. Unemployment in the EU as a whole grew, in contrast with other world regions.The unemployment rate in the euro area is currently at the highest level and unemployment performance at unprecedented levels. The number of unemployed in April 2012 was 17.4 million for the euro area, almost 25 million in the EU. The number of job losses since 2008 amounts to about 5 million for the EU; 3 million for the euro area.

In 2011, the euro area was the world region with the highest unemployment rate. Since second half of 2011, unemployment developments in industrialised countries have started to diverge, mainly as a consequence of a more sustained recovery in the US and Canada compared with the EU and Japan.In Japan, GDP growth turned out negative following weak external demand and the supply chain disruptions related with the earthquake and flooding in Thailand. Conversely, in many other industrialised countries, most notably Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, unemployment remains above the pre-crisis average in spite of the recovery.In the United States, relatively stable real wages were associated with sluggish job creation amid strong recovery of productivity growth. In Japan, the limited adjustment in head-count employment during the 2011 contraction coincided with a substantial increase in real wages, mostly attributable to price deflation

The European employment strategy seeks to create more and better jobs throughout the EU. It takes its inspiration from the Europe 2020 growth strategy. In response to the high level of unemployment in Europe, the European Commission launched in April 2012 a set of measures to boost jobs, the so called “Employment package”.

1. 1. Support job creation
2. 2. Restore the dynamics of labour markets
3. 3. Strengthen the governance of employment policies

Flexicurity is an integrated strategy for enhancing, at the same time, flexibility and security in the labour market.

Working with national governments, social partners and academics the EU has found acommon flexicurity principles and has explored how countries can implement them through four components:Flexible and reliable contractual arrangements,Comprehensive lifelong learning strategies,Effective active labour market policies,Modern social security systems

Integrated flexicurity policies play a key role in modernising labour markets and contributing to the achievement of the 75% employment rate target set by the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Sources:

http://www.oecd.org/

 http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators

http://www.worldbank.org/

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/

http://www.wikipedia.org/

 

Written by Latife Cansu Bayar, Eyüp Dönderalp, Lucija Kacin and Lenka Filova

 

Lower Silesia in Poland- best chance for employment?

Lower Silesia in Poland- best chance for employment among other regions?

 

Lower Silesia, next to Mazowsze and Greater Poland, atrract the majority of foreign investments.The number of newly established enterprises with foreign capital is growing faster here than in other parts of the country. This facilitates the transfer of the latest technologies, create new jobs, increase exports and competition. Since 2005 Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency has been working effectively. Its main purpose is to help foreign investors to develop interest in Lower Silesia.

ARAW the main advantages of the region considered:

• good location – not far from us is to Warsaw, Prague and Berlin;

  

• strong staff educated at prestigious universities in Wroclaw;
• quality of life;
• support provided to investors by the local government.

  Quite innovative and interesting idea is the programme called Populus. This programme was created by young mathematicians under the guidance of prof. Alexander Verona from the center Stochastic Methods. H. Steinhaus, Wroclaw University of Technology. The main purpose of it is to predict, how polish future Lower Silesia labour market will look like. It’s a kind of “crib” not only for investors but also universities that can adapt their educational programme to meet the future demand for certain professions.

  The structure of unemployment

  In Lower Silesia, most retailers are unemployed. At the same time it is addressed to them, most job offers. Characteristic of this professional group is the frequent change of employment. The impetus for this may be any potential increase. In addition, most of the registered unemployed is:
  *masons,
  *locksmiths,
  *tailors,
  *cooks,
  *housekeeping.

  The percentage of unemployment among people with higher education is 6.2 percent. The hardest to find a job political scientists – one offer falls 128 registered unemployed. At the opposite extreme are the IT programmers – although one in ten computer systems engineer has trouble finding a job.

  The professions of the future

  We can specify certain tendencies, which will govern the labor market during next three years. According to the “Forecasting the labor market and skills needs” edited by Teresa Kupczyk most jobs will be for:
  traders,
  physicists,
  chemists,
  team building,
  painters of buildings,
  construction workers finishing works
  production line operators,
  computer,
  secretaries,
  bodyguards
  sellers
  architects,
  engineers,
  caregivers for children and the elderly,

  This trend is a result of the announced development of the IT industry and research laboratories. New companies investing in Lower Silesia will need office personnel, thanks to construction boom occuring ahead of Euro 2012 employment will find architects and builders. Demand for bodyguards will increse because of growing insecurity. An aging population will increase the number of vacancies for carers of older people.

  What is important for recruitment

  As people involved in selection of employers admit, the importance attached to formal education of candidates for specific positions is decreasing. More important is the experience, personal features and so called soft skills. The most desirable features are, therefore, good communication skilld, openness to change, ease of finding themselves in different situations, independence, creativity and willingness to learn. Employers also value the knowledge of foreign languages​​, especially English, German and French, but more often the Dutch, Japanese, Italian, Korean and Swedish. A valuable skill is knowledge how to apply effictively for EU funds . A popular way to recruit, especially in managerial positions, is so called the assessment center,which checks abilities to manage a team.

  As for us- young people who are getting closer to career related choices,there is great importance in observing the economic situation of our area of living.As we will be up to date with all predicted investments, new companies creation and expanding we will be more successful in concluding the skills we should improve or gain in order to be more likely employed in years to come.

 

Sources:

http://p4g-project.eu/artykuly/280/Information-and-statistics/

http://gazetapraca.pl/gazetapraca/2029020,90443,4477964.html

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojew%C3%B3dztwo_dolno%C5%9Bl%C4%85skie#Gospodarka

/By Alicja Łoś, Emilia Janaszkiwicz/

Childcare services in EU Member States

Childcare services are services intended for the children in the age before going to primary school. Until now this was the ages from three years old until the age when child goes to primary school, which is different in some EU Member States. But now and in some countries in future this age is changing. In some countries children go to school at the same age, but the childcare models are different in every single country.
There are two different groups of Member States according to development. In the first group are EU-15 Member States and they already have developed childcare services and are concentrating on improving the quality of the services. In second group are the countries that don’t have developed childcare services yet, but are expected to grow seriously in the future.

In the graph bellow you can see annual expenditure on public and private pre-primary education in Member States in years 1997 and 2002:

Source: OECD Statistics Database, 2005

Only in this figures we can see how much one country differs from another. We can see that the biggest spenders are Scandinavian countries and they also have the biggest investing in this sector per capita. The difference can be seen in the education of the personnel  caring for children in childcare (this differs also from age of caring children) and in the number of children per carer. This number differs from 3 children per carer to 13 children per carer. But becouse of big differances in the countries models, we cannot make any statistics on which we could compare childcare by countries.

In the second graph we can se the projection of population of children under  the age of 5 for EU from year 1975 to the year 2050:

Source: Eurostat, Statistics Database, 2005

With this we can see that population is getting even older, and European population in not among youngest in the first place. And the rate of children under the age of five in population is decreasing faster than in other countries. I think this is the sector where the education of the workers and the number of workers wanting to work in this sector is increasing and if the demand is going to decrease, than we could see a problem in this sector in the future.

In the past childcare was orientated to preparing for education children from the age of 3 years old until the age of going to primary school but now this is changing. They are starting to prepare children even earlier. And I think this is very wrong. Children are supposed to have fun at least at young age, we all know how life starts becoming stressfull as we are getting older. There are always new problems and the only time in our life we are without worries is in childhood. Parents are pushing their children too much already because they think it is going to be better for them, that they will enable them better life, so they are signing them up for after school projects and I think this is also too much. But we cannot control parents, but if we start pushing them to much from this young age I think we will not manage better life for generation after us. And if if countries are going to find opportunity to make work places in this sector is not going to end well in the end.

Source:

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/emcc/content/source/eu06015a.htm?p1=ef_publication&p2=null

Blaž Kralj, Alicja Falińska

Reversal of global migration trends due to the crisis, on the chosen example.

The economic crisis which hit Europe, has left its mark in the labor market. In a particularly difficult situation were young people just entering the labor market, for which there is no place. This forced many of them to consider the decision to emigrate from their homeland. For many years remained constant trend in this area. Countries which were characterized by a high rate of emigration (in the European scale- usually countries of the “new union” – Central and Eastern Europe, in the world’s scale- former colonies- Spanish, Portuguese and French), whose citizens have decided to move to countries with a higher standard of living. There was also a group of countries that were typical destination for immigrants. Citizens of the “New Union” countries usually decided to move to Germany, the UK and France. The destination of the newcomers from the former colonies, was the home countries of these colonies- France, Portugal and Spain. Large influx of immigrants from Africa have been registered also in Italy and Greece.

The economic crisis with his affect on the U.S. and Europe caused a reduction in the living standards of many people in the Old Continent. By this we can see a change in the global migration trends. It turns out that people in countries such as Portugal and Spain-seen so far as a haven for immigrants, now consider the possibility of moving to another part of the world in search for jobs. However, the Spanish immigrant profile is significantly different from the immigrants from central and eastern Europe. Poles, Lithuanians or Hungarians who decide to emigrate are often well educated and who know the languages ​​of the countries to which they wish to move. Their decision to leave the country is a cause of “brain drain” in the homeland. Often the situation forces them to work below their qualifications in the country of destination.

Most of the young people in Spain decide to abandon schools very early, not earning an education that allows them to be skilled labor force abroad, the problem is also the lack of foreign language skills. Perhaps that is why it is easier for them to decide to move to a country that is former colony. Especially now, when the economic situation in Latin America and the development of the continent in recent years has caused a reduction in unemployment to an approximately 6% (as shown in the figure below data in %, year 2012).

http://wyborcza.biz/biznes/1,101716,13266980,Latynosi_znalezli_patent_na_bezrobocie.html

Of course it is not so that every person who decide to leave Spain does not have education and does not know foreign languages. There is a group of highly educated people who emigrate because of the inability to find a job in their profession for decent wages. Here is another difference between an immigrant from Eastern Europe and Spanish. They do not decide to work below their qualifications, as it is in the case of Poles travelling to England for example. Interestingly, in recent years we have seen an increase of immigrants from Spain in Poland, which seem to be quite unattractive country for migrants from the west. However, it appears that the Spanish engineer that could count on a salary of 800 euros per month, which in Spain is a small amount in Poland with its lower cost of living, accept the offer and work in another country treats not only as a way to survive the crisis, but also interesting experience in his career.

Spaniards are the largest group among immigrants from Western Europe in Poland. Often they are trying for management positions in Spanish companies, or a job as a teacher of Spanish. Why they are choosing Poland? A large group of Spanish immigrants in Poland are former Erasmus, who knew the country while on international exchange, and more recently, people who had the opportunity to meet and like the country during the Euro 2012 Championships.

I believe that if the financial situation force someone to emigrate can not be considered to be the most optimistic and the best situation. However, a trend which can be observed in recent years, shown here on the example of Spanish immigrants, is in my opinion very interesting from the point of view of the international labor market. I think a few years ago, no one expected that Spain, a country receiving a large group of foreign workers in 2012 will record a negative migration balance.

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Alicja Falińska, Blaž Kralj

CYPRIOT CURRENT SITUATION

 

CYPRIOT CURRENT SITUATION-

 

 

In order to avoid being thrown away from European Union, Cyprus had to accept last minute bailouts. Of course to achieve this supposrt they have to make some sacrefices-in this case it will affect depositors, who put their savings in the Cypriot banks.This is supposed to be the way to prevent collapse of the economy.The country agreed to tax bank accounts holding 100,000 Euros. Now the tax is expected to be raised to 5,8 billion Euros and generally as Stefan Kourbelis(manager at centrum hotel in Nicosia) said, it can be seen as an experiment made on a smaller country which is not of great importance so the eventual damage can be bearable. I think he reffers to the previous problematic situation in Ireland, Greece, Portugal or Spain where depositors haven’t been touched by a crisis so deeply as in Cyprus.

 

 

In my opinin it is understandable that reach countires like Germany or the Netherlands do not want to be ”breakwinners” for poorer counties, supporting them continuously with their money. It brings out the concern about the efficiency of the Euro zone, because as Iraland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the euro zone will face a lot of obstacles until the Cyprus issue is resolved,in particular the issue how bank depositors will be treated.

 

 

 

As we know the government extended the holiday for banks to put stop for run on banks. In addition banks are supposed to limit daily withdrawals. I consider that even though it might be helpful and it can slow the smuggling, it will anyway threathen to the local economy. It’s almost sure thet the capital control arrive to Cyprus to late, actually few years after it should be introduced.The new control’s target is to stop money from fleeing too fast, so in other words it deacrease the amount which anybody can take out of the Cypriot.It is claimed to be just temporary but if it will work I wouldn’t be so sure. During 2008 and 2009 Cypriot became good place for hot money.That was caused by the fact that Cypriot banks paid higher interest rates on euros and very often did not have a lot of requirements like for example the knowledge where those money come from. The Asian currency crisis of the 1990 showed how unstable country situation can be, taking into consineration hot money.

 

 

 

I think looking at Cipriot situation we can find many similarities with the event whhich occured in Ireland before.The also took advantege of capital inflows but in the end the oversised banking system failed and then when foreigners wanted their money at once, Ireland decided to support their banks leading to virtual bancrupcy of the country’s government.

 

 

 

Nowadays cypriot depositors like for example Mr. Argotis (an independent financial executive) feels really unsatisfied and angry about their current position, he says “We were a member of the European family.Now it seems they want to push us out of the euro.” Within Cyprus as people realize how badly the national economy might be influence by the combination of capital controls on the flow of money out of the country and the freeze on the account of bank deposits, feelings of dissappointment is increasing. Some establishment figures are now discussing the option of leaving the euro currency union.

 

I think we can also connect Cyprus economic and financial problems with U.S mortgage crisis from 2007.That time Cyprus suffered the sharp drop in the local business activity and tourism sector.

 

What is more unemployment in the country has been rising. The Cyprus economy has been influenced especially hard by the several bailout packages Greece was granted during the last few years.Cyprus was already going on with loans from Russia and the Greek crisis has only intensified its difficult position.Russia won’t help Cyprus. But on the other hand if Cyprus collapse, Russia would lose a lot because they have assets and holdings with a value of 24 billion euros

 

In my opinion the world is concerened about Cyprus mostly because its close ties to Greece- falining economy in one country will devastate the other one.What follows that- it will reflect on the E.U.,already weakened because of debts crisis. When it comes just to bare Cyprus there is not really any consequences in Europe because Cyprus production is just 0.2 % of the Eurozone production.

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%9313_Cypriot_financial_crisis

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/cyprus/index.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21992745

 

/By Emilia Janaszkiwicz,Alicja Łoś/

 

 

 

The most important challenges for the labour market in Poland

Since a few years there is a visible mismatch between what the employers expect from their future employees and what kind of expectation the employees can meet. Nearly ¾ of employers have now difficulties with finding candidates corresponding with their requirements.

As an attempt at changing this situation for the better there was a conference trying to find answer the most important questions.
The first identified problem is stagnation in spite of the steady growth of employees. According to the research, every year since 2010 about 17% of employers were looking for employees. However, combined with increasing uneployment polish labour market  still remains stagnant. Another factor of high unemployment is incompatibility. Job seekers often represent not adequate skills or professional competence (related to the specific job on a certain posts) and connected with self-organisation. The greatest shortage in labour market is seen in jobs related to construction and professionals in strict areas. On the other hand, professions in which there has been noted an excess are salesmen, office workers and labourers in areas such as industry, mining and transport.
Unfortunately, the economic growth is still not sufficient and there is still not enough new workplaces. Up to 90% of employers looking for new workforce intended to hire within the scope of rotation on already existing positions. Percentage of new created posts remains on a stable level in comparison to previous years (10% in 2010, 9% in 2009).

Another factor contributing to the current situation is a general European problem with the ageing society existing also in Poland. Indicators of employment for the older generation is one of the most unfavourable in the whole Europe. In 2011 according to the research of BKL, only 49% of men aged 50-64 were finding employment (average in the EU – 65%). In case of women the indicator is even worse – 48% (EU 63%). Fortunately, the situation is slowly changing, as in the 2012 the rates were 50% for men and 51% for women but still more time is necessary for more visible improvements.
Connected with ageing of the society is lack of motivation among people over 45 years old for further education and self-improvement. That creates another factor discouraging employers from hiring them instead of younger and better educated candidates.
However, the situation of graduates is not better. The unemployment rate among young people is growing and the average salaries also dropped slightly. These days, young people have to be very well oriented in the labour market situation and choose wisely their future studies or vocational school. Good choice may guarantee a good, well-paid job whereas thoughtless choice may lead to unemployment or low-paid job.

Sources:

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rynek_pracy

http://pokl.parp.gov.pl/index/more/31860

 

/By Emilia Janaszkiewicz, Alicja Łoś/