Struktura bezrobocia osób niepełnosprawnych w województwie łódzkim

The article identifies factors determining unemployment among disabled people in Poland and looks at the specific features of joblessness in this group. The author compares Poland’s overall disabled population with the inhabitants of the central province of Łódź according to selected criteria. The analysis is based on reports by the Polish Ministry of Labor and Social Policy (MPiPS-01 and MPiPS-07). The author focuses on Łódź province because this province has had the largest number of disabled people country-wide over the past three years. It also has a high unemployment rate among long-term jobless. The study shows that the number of disabled jobless aged over 55 is steadily increasing and that more than half the disabled are aged 49-59. There are more men than women among unemployed people with disabilities. What’s more, one in three disabled individuals in Łódź province and one in five in Poland as a whole became disabled due to working in hazardous conditions. Unemployed people with disabilities tend to be less well educated than other unemployed - 70 percent have only basic vocational education or less. However, there are also many jobless among disabled with a post-secondary and higher education. The analyzed group is more vulnerable to long-term unemployment than the overall jobless population. Increasingly longer periods of job search and repeated unsuccessful attempts to find employment result in a feeling of rejection and isolation from society, eventually leading to unwillingness to take up work altogether. As a result, the author says, disabled unemployed are increasingly giving up plans to look for work or losing their jobless status after failing to formally confirm their readiness to take a job.