Nine articles discuss the effect of economic and social upheaval on employment and wages in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, the USSR, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. (SK)

Despite concerns that globalization will increase unemployment and wage inequality, drive down wages and labor standards, and threaten national policy autonomy, it is clear that national policies still determine employment levels and labor standards. However, the need to protect those damaged by globalization still exists. (SK)

In contrast to other East Asian countries, in Papua New Guinea the economy is stagnating due to high labor costs, overvalued currency, stagnant productivity, high government consumption, and barriers to external and internal investment and exports. (SK)