Peculiarities of the Development of the Lithuanian Labour Market Policy (Situation analysis and development prospects)

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of Lithuanian labour market policy development from the restoration of independence
in 1990 till 2008. In view of various factors impacting the situation in the labour market, the article
proposes stages of the labour market development that serve as a basis for their analysis and assessment. The stages
are defined in connection with changes in the labour market and management environment which impacts the employment
policy and are reflected in the implementation of the existing policy. According to the authors, for the purpose
of the analysis, the analysed period might also be divided into other stages on the basis of other indicators (e.g., by
the dynamics of unemployment only, by wage developments, by adoption of legislation relevant to the labour market
policy, etc.).
The article invokes scientific, methodological and statistical information to conduct a comparative analysis and
assessment of analytical findings as well as to briefly present findings of the applied Expert Interview approach. The
study evidences that in 18 years the Lithuanian labour market policy has undergone a long road from the then poorly
understood national labour market and unemployment problem (resulting in passive labour market policy predominantly
followed at the first stage, underdeveloped system for reliable regulation of employment of local residents, insufficient
attractiveness of labour market authorities for job seekers, eventually making most of them use the services
of “unofficial labour market”), through EU pre-accession period and harmonisation of the Lithuanian labour market
policy with EU legislation, up to implementation of the common EU employment strategy.
This article is the first attempt of such a kind to provide with an analytical assessment of the changes in the development
of the labour market and peculiarities of its management in the independent Lithuania. The article contains
practical and theoretical insights on changes in the labour market and prospects of the labour market policy.