Today every state conducts labour market policy, influencing labour supply and demand on behalf of and for the society. The aim of this policy is to maintain or restore the equilibrium, taking into consideration its main goal - high level of employment and low unemployment. This paper focuses on the role and importance of the labour market problems in economic theories as well as in the contemporary economy. It elaborates on labour market in the mainstream economic theories; the concept and types of state policy on the labour market; labour market policy in the European Union Member States; and labour market policy during the present financial and economic crisis. The discussion presented in the paper has led to theoretical and practical conclusions about the role of state and its influence on situation on the labour market.

The aim of the study was to investigate the actual effectiveness of the active labor market policy. For that purpose the results of studies conducted in different countries and at different times were compared to avoid them being dependent on specific socioeconomic conditions and to allow considering them universal. Microeconomic analyses indicated that the most effective ALMP measures were subsidized employment (with the mean employment effect of ca. 6-40 pp), followed by training (ca. 5-20 pp), help and intermediation in search for employment (ca. 9 pp), while direct establishment of jobs was classified as ineffective and even more decreasing the opportunities of future employment of the participants. On the base of macroeconomic analyses it was found out in turn that in the scale of the entire economy subsidized employment did not offer any benefits, as was the case in direct establishment of jobs. Help and intermediation in search for employment only decreased unemployment without influencing increase of employment. Training that not only contributed to decreasing the level of unemployment but also to increasing the level of employment proved the most effective.

Using FGT poverty indices, the paper estimates relative poverty in Poland for the period 1998?2008 as well as provides statistical inference on changes in relative poverty. Results show that during 1998?2008 there was a statistically significant increase in relative poverty. Single-person households and marriages without children have experienced an increase in both the relative share of relative poverty and in the risk of relative poverty during 2004?2008. In the same period, the values of these indices calculated for marriages with children do not change in a statistically significant way or display a fall in relative poverty.

The article present some comments on proposals of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Ministry of Finance concerning the public pension system in Poland. The author explains why the proposed shift of the 4,3% of pension contributions from the capital (fully-funed) to the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) part of the system would be the wrong solution. The main argument is that it would destroy the basic structure and the main aim of the new public pension system (risk diversification between PAYG and fully-funded pillar). Author present his own proposals of modification of the public pension system in Poland (for example: the introduction of a new benchmark for the pension funds in the second pillar of the system, based on real rate of return of investments and the average rate of economic growth (GDP).

The most clearly visible change that has been carried out for over ten years in the social security system is, of course, the transition from PAYG financing towards the PAYG-funded financing. The less noticeable and less understandable, but more important, seems to be the change that consists in switching from the so-called defined-benefit formula to the so-called defined contribution formula. While stressing the importance of these two fundamental systemic changes, one should agree that the so-far experience of changes in old-age security system allows for the formulation of rather critical assessments relating to the realization of the concept of system's changes and to the specific construction components of the system. Inconsistencies associated with the introduction of the PAYG-funded financing must raise serious concerns, which the financial crisis has only compounded. Equally essential are the doubts arising from the application of defined contribution rule in the pension scheme, which raises emotions slowly yet they will strongly be intensified with subsequent decisions concerning the payout of retirement benefits. Thus, the reforming of the pension system turns out to be an example of the bad management of social change in which both inadequate social acceptance and firm political decisions play an exceptionally important role. The "OPF (open pension funds) problem" in the new pension system must be treated with a certain distance which is missing in the current discussion. That is so because one cannot evaluate (review, judge) the undergoing change without a fair recall to its earlier assumptions. This is indispensable whenever we are in favour of continuation of a particular concept of change as well as when we propose necessary modifications to it. Inconsolable process of privatization of state enterprises in Poland in 1999-2009 is the main reason of OPF problem.

The article presents the necessary actions to complete the pension reform in Poland. It contains assumptions and regulatory proposals that were developed in 2009 and 2010 in the MLSP. Some of them indicated in the commentary.

The article presents comments to the proposals of changes in the new pension system, presented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. These proposals include, among others, changes in the division of old-age pension contribution between pension accounts and possibility to use open pension funds' savings for lump-sum payments. In author's view, such changes would worsen both the situation of pension systems' participants (as they would not benefit from diversification of sources of future pension and would be AT higher poverty risk) as well as pension system itself (through increased liabilities of PAYG pension fund).

Book reviews
Information

STATE POLICY AND THE LABOUR MARKET: ECONOMIC IDEAS AND REALITY - Elżbieta Kryńska, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ACTIVE LABOUR MARKET POLICY AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE - Roman Kisiel, Sylwia Nowińska
RELATIVE POVERTY IN POLAND DURING 1998-2008 - Michał Brzeziński

THE PROPOSALS OF CHANGES IN THE POLISH PUBLIC PENSION SYSTEM - Marek Szczepański
PUBLIC PENSION SYSTEM AFTER TEN YEARS: DEBATES CONCERNING OPF? - Tadeusz Szumlicz
CHANGES IN THE PENSION SYSTEM IN POLAND. CHANGES IN OPF. PROJECTS OF THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL POLICY - Gertruda Uścińska
PROPOSALS OF CHANGES IN THE NEW PENSION SYSTEM BY MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL POLICY - Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak

Stanisława Golinowska, Peter Hengstenberg, Maciej Żukowski (eds.): DIVERSITY AND COMMONALITY IN EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICIES THE FORGING OF A EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL - Reviewed by Włodzimierz Anioł:
Juliusz Gardawski: SOCIAL DIALOGUE IN POLAND. THEORY, HISTORY, PRACTICE - Reviewed by Dariusz Zalewski

NEEDS OF LABOUR MARKET IN PODLASIE REGION. CONFERENCES IN BIAŁYMSTOK - Agnieszka Smoder