Diagnosing the Reasons for Economic Inactivity in the Polish Population

Subject and purpose of work: This paper deals with the issues of occupational activation of economically inactive persons. Its objective is to provide the reader with an outline of labour market problems and the situation of the economically inactive population*. Persons who qualify neither as employed or as unemployed potentially constitute an untapped labour potential. The focus in this paper is on economically inactive persons and the reasons they do not seek employment, in order to better understand, first, the causes behind such a low occupational activity and, second, the possible remedial measures. In view of the urgent need for reintegrating persons outside the labour force with the labour market, it appears of utmost importance to identify the reasons for their situation. The fact that nearly 5.02 million working-age Poles remain economically inactive (accounting for nearly 22.0% of the whole working-age population) indicates how huge their potential may be. Special attention will be paid to groups of potential workers who have barely marked their presence on the labour market. One such group is formed by over 2.35 million individuals who are outside the labour market for reasons unrelated to health or retirement age.