Labour Market Situation in Central European Countries (in the Period of Declining of the Nineties)

The aim of the article is to analyse the impact of the transition processes on labour markets in Central Europe Countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, FYR of Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). The analysis covers period from 1995 to 1999 year and is based on EUROSTAT data. Main features of labour markets characteristics were: declining employment, growing unemployment specially structural and long term and strong shifts in sectoral employment patterns toward growing share of services in total employment. General causes of described above situation, with some exceptions were: the slowdown in economic growth as the result of external shocks (the impact of international financial crises, the Russian crises, the Kosovo conflict and lower growth in the EU). In some countries internal weaknesses such as the slow pace of institutional reforms, the delayed restructuring of enterprises, the increasing costs of loans and high degree of indebtedness of firms contributed to this trend. Final conclusions are mostly pessimistic, none of the examined countries have reached starting points of the positive tendency to stabilisation of domestic labour market