Poland

1.Series

Title:

Registered unemployment.

Starting year:

1999.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

Powiat (district) Labour Offices.

Type of agency:

Public service under local authorities.

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

In all districts of the country.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;

Assisting job-seekers to establish their own business;

Assisting employers to find workers;

Vocational guidance;

Job-related training;

Paying unemployment compensation;

Other: organization of in-extremis temporary jobs and public work schemes (subsidized employment).

Percentage of job-seekers seeking work through the agency:

Not known, as no research has been carried out on this subject.

3.The following information is registered about a person:

Name;

Sex;

Address of usual residence;

Date of birth;

Citizenship;

Educational/vocational attainment, with five categories distinguished. Links to ISCED have not been established;

Current/past activity status, by employment period (less than one year, 1-5 years, 5-10 years, 10-20 years, 20-30 years, 30 years and over, and never employed);

Type of work (occupation) of past or present job with an unspecified number of groups distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (sub-major groups level). (The Polish Classification of Occupations and Specialities is adjusted to ISCO-88);

Type of work (occupation) of job sought, with an unspecified number of groups distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have been established (sub-major groups level);

Name and address of present or previous employer or work place;

Type of business (industry) of present/previous employer/workplace, with an unspecified number of groups distinguished. Links to NACE, rev. 1 have been established (division level). (The Polish Classification of Activities is based on NACE, rev.1);

Previous registrations with the agency/service;

Other: balance of unemployed persons; job offers; unemployed persons taking advantage of active labour market forms (training, vocational guidance, job clubs, etc.).

Note: Statistical reporting does not cover unit data; therefore much of the above information is only recorded in the Registration Card of the unemployed person/job-seeker and is not recorded in the labour market statistics.

4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Being without work (R) and (S);

Seeking work (R) and (S);

Availability for work (R);

Age (lower limit: 18 years (with the exception of juvenile graduates); upper limit: 65 years for men; 60 years for women) (R) and (S);

Citizenship (R) and (S);

Being resident in the country (R) and (S);

Previously employed (R) and (S).

5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Death (R) and (S);

Taking up residency abroad (R) and (S);

Commencement of a (new) job (R) and (S);

Commencement of military service (R) and (S);

Participation in an employment promotion scheme, public works programme, etc. (R) and (S);

Studying or undergoing training (R) and (S);

Failure to contact the agency/service (three months exclusion) (R) and (S);

Refusal of two suitable job or public works offers (six months exclusion) (R) and (S);

Receipt of a retirement pension (R) and (S);

Inability to work (R) and (S);

Other: voluntary resignation from the status of an unemployed person; receipt of a loan from the Labour Fund or the State Fund for Rehabilitation of the Disabled to start an economic activity; attainment of the age of 65 years for men and 60 years for women; acquisition of the right to a pre-pension allowance or benefit (R) and (S).

6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

A person is recognized as unemployed if s/he: is not employed (i.e. does not perform work on the basis of employment or service relationship or outwork); does not perform any other gainful work (i.e. does not perform work on the basis of civil law contracts (agency, commission or for a specific work) or in a period of membership of agricultural production co-operative or rural circles’ co-operative (agricultural services); and:

is able to work and ready to accept employment full-time, according to the rate of hours of work binding for a given occupation or service (with the exception of disabled persons);

is not attending school in a day system;

is registered in a powiat labour office, appropriate for place of permanent or temporary residence;

is aged 18 years or over (with the exception of juvenile graduates);

is aged less than 65 years for a man and 60 years for a woman;

has not acquired the right to a retirement pension in respect of incapacity for work, training pension or after termination of employment, other gainful work, after stopping economic activity outside agriculture, does not receive pre-pension benefit or allowance, rehabilitation benefit, sickness allowance, maternity or child-care allowance;

is not an owner or co-owner of agricultural real estate of an arable area exceeding two hectares taken for the purposes of calculation or is not covered by pension insurance in respect of permanent work as a spouse or member of a household on a farm of an arable area exceeding two hectares taken for the purposes of calculation;

is not an owner or co-owner of a farm classified under a special section of agricultural production in the meaning of tax regulations, unless the income from a special section of agricultural production, calculated for the purposes of personal income tax is lower than or equal to average income from work in an individual farm of two hectares taken for the purposes of calculation, laid down by the President of the Central Statistical Office, under the regulations concerning rural tax, or is not covered by pension insurance in respect of permanent work as a spouse or member of a household on such a farm;

has not started economic activity outside agriculture between a day indicated in application to register and a day of deregistering such activity, or is not covered - under separate provisions - by compulsory social insurance, with the exception of social insurance of farmers or pension security;

is a disabled person, whose health condition allows for taking up employment at least half-time for a given occupation or service;

is not a temporarily detained person or in a period of imprisonment (deprivation of liberty);

does not receive monthly income in an amount exceeding half the minimum wage;

does not receive, under the social assistance legislation, a permanent allowance, permanent compensatory allowance, guaranteed periodic allowance or social pension.

7.Updating of the registers

The registers are updated regularly.

8.Unemployment rates

Statistics from the registers are used to obtain unemployment rates.

The sources of data on employed persons who are part of the denominator of the unemployment rates are the Labour Force Survey, establishment surveys, Official Estimates and the Population Census.

Definition of employed persons for this purpose:

Data concerning employed persons relate to persons performing gainful work (income or earnings generating work). The following are included:

persons employed on the basis of an employment relationship (employment contract, appointment, nomination or election);

employers and own-account workers (self-employed persons);

owners and co-owners of entities engaged in economic activity except for individual farms in agriculture;

other own-account workers, e.g. self-employed professionals;

outworkers and others.

9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

Series 1:

Reference period:

Unspecified.

Frequency of production:

Yearly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Previous work experience;

Duration of unemployment;

Other: inflow - outflow; with right to benefit; unemployment rate; previously not working; graduates; released for reasons concerning enterprise; by place of residence; job offers; taking advantage of active labour market forms.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On CD-ROM.

Agency responsible for publication:

Central Statistical Office.

Title and periodicity of the publication:

Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Poland.

Series 2:

Reference period:

Unspecified.

Frequency of production:

Biennial.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Geographic characteristics;

Previous work experience;

Duration of unemployment;

Other: inflow - outflow; with right to benefit; unemployment rate; previously not working; graduates; released for reasons concerning enterprise; by place of residence; taking advantage of active labour market forms.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On CD-ROM.

Agency responsible for publication:

Central Statistical Office.

Title and periodicity of the publication:

Statistical Yearbook of Labour, biennial.

Series 3:

Reference period:

Unspecified.

Frequency of production:

Quarterly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Educational level;

Occupation;

Industry;

Geographic characteristics;

Previous work experience;

Duration of unemployment;

Other: inflow - outflow; starting work; with right to benefit; unemployment rate; released for reasons concerning enterprise; previously working or not; graduates; by place of residence; job offers; active labour market forms for registered unemployed persons.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience.

Agency responsible for publication:

Central Statistical Office.

Title and periodicity of the publication:

Registered unemployment, quarterly.

Other series:

The National Labour Office publishes the following information series:

Information concerning unemployment state and structure (monthly).

Unemployed persons for a period exceeding 12 months.

Labour Market in Poland (yearly).

Institutional labour market services (yearly).

Permissions for employment for foreigners (half-yearly; yearly).

Women’s unemployment (half-yearly; yearly).

Information concerning unemployment state and structure (half-yearly).

Information concerning registered unemployment state and structure in rural areas (half-yearly; yearly).

Information concerning youth labour market situation (halfyearly; yearly).

Unemployed persons and job offers for unemployed persons by occupations and specialities (half-yearly; yearly).

Unemployed women by occupations and specialities (halfyearly; yearly).

Unemployed graduates of schools at over-primary level by learnt occupations (half-yearly; yearly).

Unemployment analysis by the Polish Classification of Activities (half-yearly; yearly).

Unemployed persons by occupations and specialities (halfyearly; yearly).

10.Methodological information about the statistics

Form of release:

On paper, for general audience;

In machine-readable form, on request;

On a website (http://praca@gov.pl).

Agency responsible for the release:

Central Statistical Office; National Labour Office.

11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

Comparisons have been made with unemployment statistics from the Labour Force Survey and the Population Census.

Frequency of the comparisons:

Regularly, when the statistics are published.

Publication of the methodology/results of the comparisons:

These have not been published.

12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

Major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures took place in 1991, 1996, 1997 and 2001. The resulting changes in the statistics have not been estimated.