The impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on job creation in rural areas in Poland

The purpose of this article is to present the influence of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on labor market in rural areas in Poland. Based on subject literature and statistical data, the author examines enterprises with at least 10% of foreign ownership in the context of their impact on the quantitative sphere of labor market, i.e. creating jobs. The article presents theoretical aspects of FDI effects on the host country’s economy and characteristics of enterprises with foreign capital in polish rural areas, including their size, investment expenditures and revenue and type of activity based on classification of business activities. In analyzed research period 2014–2017, the number of entities with foreign capital in rural areas decreased by 17%, from 4.4 to 3.7 thousand. Despite the decline in the number of enterprises, the number of employees increased by 23.2%, from 225 to 277 thousand. This research shows that in last of the analyzed year foreign companies were employing 1,938 million people, what accounted for 15% of private sector workers in Poland. About 14% of them were employed in companies localized in rural areas. The vast majority of jobs in companies with foreign capital in rural areas were created by entities involved in manufacturing activities. In these fi rms, about 149 thousand people were employed, accounting for 56% of workers employed in companies with foreign capital in rural areas in Poland.