The impact of the unemployment level on non-standard employment forms in the Visegrad Group countries

Abstract

Motivation: The scale of presence of non-standard forms of employment in the different economies depends on the laws in force, the offer on the demand side (employers), and the interest in that offer on the supply side (employees). Non-standard employment is more beneficial to employers than to employees because it often involves worse working conditions and lower wages. The evaluation of the relationship between the level of unemployment and the share of non-standard employment forms in Visegrad Group countries includes a comparison of the changes in the unemployment level and the share of non-standard employment forms in employment in the 15–64 age group. In order to verify the hypothesis, the coefficients of correlation and determination between the unemployment rate and the employment in non-standard forms were calculated.

Aim: The purpose of the article is to study the relationship between the unemployment rate and the share of non-standard forms in employment in a selected group of countries in the long term. The hypothesis is that changes in the unemployment level are related to changes in the share of non-standard forms in employment.

Results: The hypothesis of the article was not confirmed in most of the analyzed cross-sections. Although a statistically significant relationship was observed between the unemployment rate and part-time employment, in a half of the studied countries the relationship was positive and in the other half — negative. The only exception was Poland, due to the very high correlation between the unemployment rate and all the analyzed non-standard employment forms, which was confirmed by high determination coefficient.