Unemployment and labour-market policy in the new voivodeship system in Poland

The systemic transformation process and the introduction of market mechanisms involved in the labour market have brought about changes in the state and structure of the labour market in Poland. A measurable effect of those changes has been a drop in employment and the appearance of registered unemployment, whose level soon surpassed that of frictional unemployment and became a basic social problem. The situation in the Polish labour market is aggravated by the fact that there are wide regional differences in unemployment that persist despite variations in the level of national unemployment. The administrative reform implemented on 1 January 1999 has introduced a division of the country into 16 new voivodeships in place of the existing 49. The new system of big voivodeships endowed statutorily with a combination of central government and self-government functions was supposed to create conditions for a more effective labour-market policy at the regional scale. The aim of the present article is to analyse changes in the regional differences in unemployment resulting from the transition from the 49- to 16-unit administrative system. The analysis also covers changes in the institutionalization and implementation of labour-market policy at the regional level which followed from the reform.