UNEMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYMENT POLICY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN-EUROPE - SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

The transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were suddenly overwhelmed by high unemployment; this promised to be persistent and thus the respective governments started to seek the right ways for getting it under control, and cushioning its impacts. The questions to be answered are identical in every country: How and why did open mass unemployment emerge? Who are the unemployed? Which factors determine the acute differences within a particular country in the size and risk of unemployment? What can be done to slow down the growth of unemployment and to counterbalance its economic and social consequences? I will attempt to elaborate fragmentary answers to these questions, departing from the facts and considering the uncertainties and the doubts of interpretation, of methodology, and of economic policy.