Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

pensioners decreased by 41 per cent between 2000 and 2006 (MLSP 2006: 10; MPiPS 2008:
46), and the average age of take-up of a pension went up to 48.4 years (Table 7). Kabaj
(2003: 50, 72-73) estimates that of the about 2.438 million disability pensioners in the year
2002, 300 thousand were only allegedly incapable to work.
The Polish Labour Force Survey was launched only in 1992; before, unemployment was
hidden by frequent practices of overstaffing and frictional unemployment was not recorded
(Góra et al. 1993: 137, 141). The employment situation of older persons in the pretransformation
period can only be reproduced on basis of activity rates recorded in Censuses
in 1970, 1978, 1988 and 2002 (GUS 2003: 8). A steep decline in the covered period is
visible, most notably in the oldest age group and among women. The drop in activity rates
prior to the transition can be explained with targeted policy of de-activation with the help of
early retirement pensions for certain branches introduced in 1981 as a reaction to the
economic downturn in 1978 which followed the rapid industrial development in the prior
decade (Golinowska 1993: 85ff). Moreover, the 1970s witnessed a slump in agriculture and
introduction of farmers´ pensions (Halicka/Halicki 2002: 177). Due to an outflow of
younger workers from agriculture in the industrialisation process, older workers became
concentrated in that sector, thus suffering from the downturn (Golinowska 1993: 86-87).
Another phenomenon which could be observed also in Western Europe was the increased
acceptance of retirement as a deserved phase of life (Halicka/Halicki 2002: 174).
If we perpetuate the activity rates derived from Censuses with those from LFS, it
becomes evident (despite the limited comparability) that most of the drop in labour force
participation of older persons occurred in the last decades of communism and in the first
decade after transition. Also the steep decline of employment rates of female and male
´50pluses´ was halted in 2000, and the employment rate of 50-54-year-old men has even
went up in the last years (Fig. 10).
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