Transition from Education to Employment: A Specific Character of Rural Youth of the Selected Post-communist Countries

Abstract

The subject of analysis is the process of entering the labour market, considered in relation to the rural youth in selected post-communist countries (Poland, Romania, Russia, China and Vietnam). The empirical basis are different types of existing data (scientific monographs, papers, national and international reports, official statistics) collected in an international project funded by the National Science Centre, Poland. Transition from education to satisfactory employment which, at present times, takes almost the whole third decade of young people’s lives, is only an external indication of transformations in the labour markets all over the world. In the analysed group of the countries, Poland is the only case where both using new educational offers and positive valuation of living in the countryside occur to the extent unobserved in other countries; nevertheless, Polish young people also see their life opportunities in the cities where they compete for employment. Rural youth in all the analyzed countries usually represents the type of chaotic careers, situating it in segments of informal work, temporary or self-employment.