labor market

Unemployment insurance should serve as a financial cushion when someone unexpectedly loses their job, rather than as a system that encourages people to remain outside the labor market at others’ expense. Yet, Lithuania spends around five times more of its GDP on unemployment-related benefits than Poland, while its unemployment rate is more than twice as high. Poland’s experience shows how much labor-market rules and incentives can matter.

Italy’s economic decline was not caused by a single crisis or one disastrous policy decision. Rather, it has been a gradual deterioration spanning decades. This is the picture that emerges from the data: weaker growth, lower productivity, an ageing population, and mounting problems with public finances.

Platform workers in the Czech Republic are not, by and large, a captive workforce in need of rescue. They are people who have made a rational choice to work flexibly, on their own schedule, for income that suits their circumstances. Good regulation should make that choice safer and more transparent. It should not make it impossible.

At the end of 2025, Lithuania’s Parliament adopted amendments to the unemployment insurance system intended to strengthen incentives for a faster return to the labor market. However, according to the LFM, the fundamental problem remains unresolved: for the fourth consecutive year, Lithuania records the highest unemployment trap rate in the European Union, and remains the only EU country where this indicator exceeds 100 percent.

From tax reform to the launch of a major defence manufacturing project, 2025 has been a year of consequential economic decisions in Lithuania. Yet the underlying themes – competitiveness, fiscal discipline and personal responsibility – are not uniquely Lithuanian. They resonate across Europe and beyond.

The year 2025 was decisive for Lithuania – not only geopolitically, but economically. Defence spending increased significantly, while tax and pension reforms reshaped the policy landscape. Yet beneath these headline decisions lies a deeper question, one that extends far beyond Lithuania: are we strengthening the foundations of long-term prosperity, or shifting responsibility ever further towards the state?

In 2024, just over 10,000 people moved into the Plovdiv district from other parts of Bulgaria. The largest group, almost 5,000 people, changed their address within the province itself, while there was also a significant inflow (over 700 people) from the capital, a clear sign that Bulgaria’s second-largest city is becoming increasingly attractive.

Ukraine\'s European integration process is often discussed in terms of legislative directives and macroeconomic indicators. However, at the heart of this process lies the most vital and sensitive resource – people. For many years, labor migration from Ukraine to Poland was quite high, but often temporary in nature.

The term “wage” and its precise definition are crucial in public debates about labor markets, taxation, and social insurance. Wages also serve as a key indicator in international comparisons, guiding investors in evaluating where to locate their operations. However, confusion often arises from the distinction between gross wages and the arbitrary separation of “employee-paid” and “employer-paid” taxes and contributions.

The wonderful thing about economics is that it recognizes truths about the world that laypeople cannot intuitively grasp, based on simple statements about human action. Consider two concepts: opportunity costs and marginal decision-making based on marginal benefits and costs. If you really understand these two concepts, then it must seem normal to you that there is such a thing as optimal environmental pollution.