RESEARCH PAPER
How Many Vacant Jobs Are There in Poland?
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Publication date: 2015-10-31
GNPJE 2015;279(5):171-186
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ABSTRACT
The study undertakes to establish how many employment opportunities were available to job seekers in Poland from 2007 to 2014. The authors analyze how many vacancies there were in the market during this period and how this figure changed depending on the business cycle.
The authors use different vacancy data sets from sources including Poland’s Central Statistical Office (GUS), Public Employment Services (PSZ) and online job offers. The main research method used is an analysis of the cyclical properties of time series.
The authors find that the number of vacancies in Poland increased from the first quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2014. They also conclude that the number of online job ads largely depended on the business cycle and that cyclical changes in job offers as a whole occurred slightly ahead of cyclical changes in employment and unemployment.
The number of online job offers was the highest in provinces with relatively high GDP per capita, the authors say. In the first part of the analyzed period, the labor market showed significant shortages of skilled workers. The unemployment rate initially declined rapidly, but it later rose. This was in part due to a mismatch between job seekers and vacancies in the Polish labor market whereby employee qualifications did not match job requirements. One of the key factors determining adverse developments on the Polish labor market is low labor force mobility, the authors conclude.