The quality of human resources in Poland in the face of the ageing process of the population. An active ageing policy is needed

Jolanta Kurkiewicz, Cracow University of Economics
Ewa Soja, Cracow University

The aim of this work is to evaluate the size and the structure of the labour supply in Poland as a consequence of the ageing process. Special attention is paid to the relation of two segments, which are: the population leaving the labour market due to retirement and the population starting a professional carrier after graduation. The population leaving the labour market belongs to the post-war baby boom generations. The population, which will graduate from university within the next 5 years, belongs to the baby boomers of the beginning of the 1980s. It could create a situation of competition between old and young. The young without a professional biography start their carrier as unemployed. After the opening of the EU labour market they are willing to emigrate. Baby bust generations follow them. Our hypotheses to verify are: Being well-educated, experienced, and in good physical and psychological condition, the older generations are interested in an active ageing policy. In addition, they evaluate their future pension as insufficient for keeping a proper standard of living. It is an individual point of view. An active ageing policy is necessary to face an intensive emigration of young generations. In our work we try to evaluate the quality of older human resources expressed by the health status and educational level, active in the labour market. The social and economic features are used as explanatory variables. For this aim descriptive statistics and statistical modelling are applied. Data comes from representative research "Status health of population in Poland 2004" elaborated in the Central Statistical Office. As final results we expect: an evaluation of the potential of the elderly in the context of the workforce; an evaluation of the possibility of the presence of the elderly in the labour market; directions for demographic, social and economic policy.