AN ATTEMPT TO ASSESS THE SCALE OF HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT IN POLISH AGRICULTURE IN 2017

Hidden employment in agriculture is one of the key outstanding problems in the Polish rural modernization process. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent of changes in the Polish market in a scenario where the share of agricultural employees in the total number of employees would be close to that recorded in European Union countries (5%). In the study period, the level of hidden unemployment in agriculture varies from one voivodeship to another. The level of agricultural employment and the amount of surplus workforce suggest that structural factors continue to have a strong impact. There are no realistic ways to reduce agricul- tural employment if the released workforce have no alterna- tive non-agricultural job opportunities which are conveniently located and match their qualitative characteristics. However, the 5% level used in the simulation seems attainable within a ten to twenty-year time frame, mainly because of the per- sistent economic growth and a shortage of labor experienced in non-agricultural sectors. The creation of jobs and the align- ment of qualitative (structural) characteristics between labor supply and demand must be a natural process resulting in a sustainable balance in the labor market which does not re- quire to be artificially maintained with public funds.