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predominantly socialized sector of the economy. This downward trend is expected to continue, chiefly because of the rapid expansion of the nonagricultural branches, which offer relatively few opportunities for private employment, and because of the gradual decline in private agricultural employment resulting from the death and retirement of older farmers and the exodus of rural youth.

In the postwar period, Poland has made considerable progress in transforming a predominantly agricultural economy into one with a diversified industrial base. A substantial and continuing decline in the proportion of the labor force engaged in agriculture has resulted, but the absolute decrease in agricultural employment since 1950 has been moderate. It results chiefly from labor recruitment for industrial and construction projects during the early 1950's, and, more recently, from the attractions of urban employment and urban life. There has been no large-scale flight from the countryside such as accompanied the intensive collectivization drives launched in other Eastern European countries, because collectivization never assumed major proportions in Poland. Polish agriculture is characterized by a predominance of small, privately owned farms producing a wide variety of crops. Large, mechanized farms in the socialized sector, i.e., state and collective farms, occupy only about 15% of the land under cultivation. Since the mid-1960's the government, by strengthening educational and monetary incentives, has sought to stem the migration of rural youth to cities and does not foresee before 1975 a decline much below the 1968 level of about 6.2 million engaged in agriculture.

Most of those who have left agriculture have been in the younger age groups, and this is reflected in the aging of the agricultural labor force. The increasing proportion of females in agriculture reflects the tendency of men on small farms to take up nonagricultural jobs, leaving women to maintain the family holding. These trends, together with the emergence of the "worker-peasant" who combined part-time agricultural activities with full-time industrial employment, have had an adverse effect on the quality of the agricultural labor force.

Employment in the nonagricultural branches of the economy nearly doubled between 1950 and 1970, standing at nearly 11 million in the latter year. Indeed, throughout the postwar period the nonagricultural branches have absorbed nearly all of the annual increment to the labor force, in addition to providing employment for those released from agriculture. The socialist sector, which accounts for approximately 97% of nonagricultural employment, sets the main employment trends outside agriculture. Within the socialist sector, the relative composition of nonagricultural employment has changed little since 1950. Industry (manufacturing, mining, and power production) employs the largest number. Services follow, then construction, transportation, and communications and trade.

The private sector accounts for about 3% of total nonagricultural employment, and is relatively most important in industrial handicrafts and in services. Private shops are numerous in such service activities as cleaning and dyeing, photography, and hairdressing. The remainder of those in the private sector work mostly in the building trades.

Private handicraft activity is much diminished compared with prewar Poland. The destruction of the Jewish population during the war and the suppression of the private sector in the early 1950's reduced handicraft employment drastically. Critical shortages of services and supplies developed, especially in the rural areas, and the government moved to encourage craft activities. Employment rose significantly until 1958, but then stagnated until 1964, when the government gain moved to encourage private crafts.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070023-3