LTUžimtumo ir socialinės apsaugos plėtotė yra nepaprastai svarbi siekiant bendrųjų ilgalaikių ekonomikos plėtotės tikslų. Viena, ji pati yra išvestinė iš bendros ūkio raidos ir nuo jos priklauso: sėkminga ūkio raida sukuria darbo vietas, taip pat suteikia galimybes užtikrinti reikiamą socialinės apsaugos lygį tiems žmonėms, kurie dėl nuo jų nepriklausomų priežasčių negali pragyventi iš darbo ir kitokių pajamų. Tačiau, kita vertus, teisinga užimtumo ir socialinės apsaugos politika iš esmės gali paskatinti visos šalies ūkio plėtotę. Užimtumo iniciatyvos, palankių sąlygų samdomam ir savarankiškam užimtumui sudarymas yra vienas iš svarbiausių ekonomikos plėtotę lemiančių veiksnių. Racionali socialinės apsaugos politika, teisingai derinanti pajamų netekusių žmonių apsaugą su paskatų darbui sudarymu taip pat ženkliai gali veikti šalies ekonomikos raidą. Suprantant užimtumo ir socialinės apsaugos politikos reikšmę ilgalaikei ekonomikos plėtotei, šioje strategijoje siekiama pateikti reikšmingiausias jos ateities plėtotės kryptis, kuriomis einant būtų sudarytos geriausios sąlygos plėtoti šalies ekonomiką. [Iš teksto, p. 763]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Strategija; Šalies ūkis; Vizija; Misija; Strateginiai tikslai; Veiksmai; Priemonės; Strategy; Country's economy; Vision; Mission; Strategic goals; Actions; Measures.
ENUpon analysing the existing situation, the strategy identifies the key strengths and weaknesses of the social security and employment systems, attempts are made to insight the opportunities for the development of these systems and to evaluate the threats arising to social development. Further, a vision is presented how the employment and social security systems should operate in the future, a mission of the State is indicated in implementing the said vision, key goals to be achieved and methods for their implementation are proposed. The key strengths in the strategy are considered to be the sufficiendy educated labour force, which is better than previously adapted to the market economy requirements; also a consistent system for the implementation of the social security and employment policy developed within the decade, based on the contemporary legislation, institutional organisation and sufficiendy qualified administration with practical experience.The strategy as the main weaknesses in the sector of social security and employment lists the increased social-regional differentiation, as a result of which part of the people are pushed out of the labour market, lose or never receive the necessary qualification to re-integrate and thus form poverty and social exclusion groups; the low level of employment and high-degree and structurally unfavourable unemployment; insufficient flexibility of labour market, territorial and professional mobility of labour force, insufficient promotion of the creation of new jobs and not always satisfactory quality of the existing jobs; extensive unofficial labour market and illegal migration of labour force; insufficiently co-ordinated, not uniform and fragmentary employment policy; insufficient cohesion of employment policy, social security and social support; too low social insurance benefits, failing to guarantee the necessary level of income at the old age; insufficient accuracy of social support system benefits, poor covering of marginal social exclusion groups. The key opportunities of the sector are related to the expected development of economy that upon its co-ordination with the social and employment policy, promotion of individual motivation, will enable the use of the currently existing labour force potential by making investments in the qualified labour consuming fields. Thus there will be an opportunity to mitigate considerably and eventually to tackle the problems concerning employment, housing, poverty, social exclusion, an insufficient level of social security. Lithuania’s membership in the European Union should also have a positive effect on the encouragement of employment, quality of jobs and the development of civilised labour relations, it should open opportunities to rationally use the support from the European Union structural funds.Threats arising to the sector are related in the strategy to unemployment, unevenness of regional development and ensuing thereof the opportunity of qualified labour force emigration and the local labour force qualification loss; another threat is constituted of the predicted further ageing of the society, which will increase the need for social security expenses and will force to relatively reduce of social benefits; as a threat is also listed the insufficient social insurance coverage, which may cause the emergence of large groups of poor people without social insurance rights and only with minimum social support. Upon the formation of a vision of employment and social security, the State mission is presented in the strategy. The State should create conditions for each resident of the country, who is willing and able to work, to self-ensure the proper level of living, to implement consistendy the policy of active employment, all life learning and development of human resources, which should ensure the needs of the labour market in conformity with the labour force qualifications and flexibility, as well as to create preconditions for stable employment. The State should also implement the social policy to ensure the coverage of all the population of the country, the target oriented security against the most important social risk factors and should encourage motivation for economic activity. In forming such policy, it is necessary to use as a basis the principles of social justice, subsidiarity and solidarity in co-operation with social partners and other persons concerned. This State mission is further made concrete in the strategy, setting forth the specified goals and indicating measures for their implementation. The strategy was prepared according to the social situation of the end of 2001 - the beginning of 2002 and the then available data. [From the publication]