AGEING OF EMPLOYEES IN POLAND COMPARED TO OTHER EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES: AGRICULTURAL WORKERS VS. OTHER OCCUPATIONS

Abstract

The problem of the ageing labour force in agriculture and the effects of this process have been studied and widely discussed for a long time. The paper aims to determine the level and pace of ageing of employees in Poland compared to other European Union countries, and in particular to compare its scale between agricultural and other occupations. The study uses LFS data gathered in the EUROSTAT database and the comparative method in relation to values of the renewal ratio. The age structure of employees changed noticeably between 2002 and 2022. The proportion of employees aged 50-64 in the group of all employees increased by 11 pp. in the EU. The analyses show that in the years 2002-2022, in both the EU and Poland, agricultural workers were the oldest group among all the major occupation categories. The renewal ratio for the agricultural worker category was 1.2 in the EU and 1.4 in Poland in 2022. Nevertheless, in the period under consideration, in the EU and in Poland, the pace of ageing was relatively higher for other occupations, especially for services and sales workers, clerical support workers, and craft and related trades workers. On the other hand, managers are the only employee group in Poland reporting an increase in the renewal ratio. Changes in the age structure of the agricultural labour force in Poland and in the EU need to be explored in the context of the dynamic changes taking place in the agricultural sector in recent decades, and also in correlation with demographic trends in European societies.