The Phenomenon of Underemployment in Poland

Abstract

The labour market is usually associated with phenomena such as unemployment,employment and professional activity/inactivity. The ways in which these categoriesare shaped depend on various factors of an economic, social and technologicalnature. It is impossible to disagree with the statement that the contemporary labourmarket – local, national, and global – is undergoing dynamic changes. In the publicdebate, the themes of flexicurity, flexible forms of employment, reconciling professionalwork with private life, and lifelong learning appear more frequently. They cause heated discussions and often also controversies, since their impact on the situationof workers and employers in the labour market is increasing. Observing the trends in the world economy and the global labour market, it can be argued thatemployment becomes a privilege.Due to the reasons mentioned above, in the paper, issues which relate to 'incomplete'employment are discussed. Theoretical considerations are focused on theterminological and methodological problems related to the interpretation of the conceptof underemployment both in the Polish and foreign literature. Furthermore, therelationships between the phenomenon of underemployment and the concept of employmentflexibility and security are presented, since they are extremely importantfrom the perspective of the contemporary labour market. The theoretical analysis iscomplemented by a statistical analysis of empirical data that illustrates the currentscale of the phenomenon of underemployment in the labour market in Poland comparedto other European Union member states (EU-28). The article adopts the researchthesis that in Poland there is a problem of 'incomplete' employment. Therefore,the aim of this paper is to attempt to identify the scale of this phenomenon onthe Polish labour market. Implementation of this objective will be possible thanksto the study of national and foreign literature and a conducted statistical analysis ofselected indicators of the labour market in the context of this phenomenon, obtainedfrom the database of the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). ; -