Labour Market Analysis in the Central and Eastern European Countries

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, Central and Eastern European countries (CEE) experienced a specific pattern of economic and social evolution. In the post-communism period these countries have initiated a comprehensive process of catching-up the capitalist economies. This process involved a series of institutional reforms and the liberalization and integration of some important markets (capital market, labor market, etc.). In these circumstances, the actual economic crisis represented a major challenge for these economies, which moreover were quite affected and the recovery is slow. For the purpose of the statistic data analysis, we decided to form two groups of countries, based on their history, background and recent development. We first made an analysis of the evolution of macroeconomic indicators to see how economic policy measures were favourable overcoming the crisis for each country. Using a panel date model, we aim to illustrate the influence of some important macroeconomics indicators (unemployment rate, GDP, FDI) on the labour market (real average net earnings, employment rate). The econometric results revealed that the GDP and FDI have a positive influence upon the two dependent variables, reflecting a normal economic situation.