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Poland Labor Force
At the end of 1991, about 30.7 percent of Poland's
estimated
population of 38.3 million lived in urban centers with
populations of 100,000 or more. The priority given
urbanization
and industrialization in postwar Poland caused the urban
working
class to grow dramatically and the rural working class to
shrink
proportionately in the first decade of communist rule.
This
process slowed considerably over the next three decades
(see Demography
, ch. 2).
In 1989 nearly 22 million Poles were of working age:
11.3
million men between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four
years and
10.6 million women between ages eighteen and fifty-nine.
The
population was relatively well educated. In 1988 about 1.8
million people had a postsecondary education, another 7.0
million
had a secondary education, and 6.7 million had a basic
trade
education
(see Education
, ch. 2).
In 1989 the total labor force of 18.4 million included
36.8
percent employed in manufacturing, mining, and
construction; 25.7
percent in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; and 7.1
percent in
transport and communications. About 12 million workers, or
70
percent of the work force, worked in the state sector in
1990
(see
table 12, Appendix).
The communist system was marked by major inequality of
labor
allocation. In spite of considerable overstaffing in both
production and administrative units, labor shortages were
a
perennial problem in other areas of the economy.
Unemployment
began to grow in January 1990, partly as the result of the
reform
policies of the postcommunist governments and partly
because of
the collapse of markets in the Soviet Union and the German
Democratic Republic (East Germany), which were Poland's
most
important trading partners in Comecon. At the end of 1991,
unemployment had reached 11.4 percent. Unemployment
benefits, an
unemployment insurance system, and some retraining were
introduced in early 1990.
Wage increases in the state sector were controlled by a
very
steep tax on wages that exceeded prescribed levels. In the
private sector, the labor market operated without such
restrictions, however. Wages generally were low in the
first
reform years. In 1991 the average monthly wage was
2,301,200
zloty (for value of the
zloty--see Glossary),
not including
agricultural labor and positions in education, health and
social
services, culture, law and order, national defense, and
public
administration. At that time, however, rents were low,
electricity, gas, and fuels remained partly subsidized,
and
medical services were free
(see The Welfare System
, ch.
2).
In 1992 two nationwide labor unions existed. The
Solidarity
labor union (Solidarnosc) was internationally known for
the
decade of strikes and efforts to achieve reform that
finally
thrust it into a central political role in 1989. The
National
Coalition of Labor Unions, originally established by the
communist government after the suppression of Solidarity
in the
early 1980s, became independent of state control in 1990
and
began to compete with Solidarity for members.
Data as of October 1992
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