Search

Researchers dealing with modern unemployment point to its negative impact on the unemployed people’ quality of life. In the article, we analyze this relationship focusing on the perspective of contemporary Polish unemployed, whose experience is considered in the context the changes that have taken place at the labor market after the systemic transformation of 1989. In the text, we argue that the unemployed experience a sense of insecurity as a consequence of the uncertain situation on the labor market. There is also a lack not only of stable income but also of emotional and institutional support. All of these builds up a traumatic and long-lasting experience that many unemployed people are unable to cope with. Such experience can be a bigger obstacle in returning to the labor market than more easily perceptible barriers, for instance, the lack of adequate qualifications.

Starting from the notion of precarity, we describe how authors of memoirs of the unemployed try to limit the consequences of unemployment and what difficulties they encounter. We refer to four main areas of protection:work, state institution, community and family. The conclusions point to a strong link between them. The key role is played by the family, while the state institution and the community play less significant role. The labour market and offices are particularly negatively evaluated. In the article we look in detail at the efforts of the unemployed in the area of searching for and performing jobs, which sometimes even deepen their precarity. We are also analysing internships and cash benefits for children, the so-called 500+. While internships do not fulfill their function and rather serve to prolong the situation of uncertainty, the 500+ benefit, managed mostly by women, has a rather positive effect.