№ 3/2015

The purpose of this study is to determine regularities in the development of sectors and transformations of the three-sector employment structure in the light of the theory of three sectors of the economy and to determine the trend of development of the three sectors of the economy in Ukraine and Poland in the period of systemic transition.
According to the theory of the three sectors of the economy there are regularities in the process of economic development involving the decline in the relative importance of the agricultural sector, the service sector gains in importance, the relative importance of the industrial sector increases, stabilizes and then declines. Analyses show that the regularities in the development of the sectors formulated in the theory of the three sectors of the economy are supported by economies of Poland and Ukraine. The share of the agricultural sector tends to decrease. The process is stronger in Poland than in Ukraine, and it is the opposite in the case of the service sector which shows a stronger upward trend in Ukraine. Moreover, the three-sector employment structure in Poland, formed in recent years, is slightly different than in Ukraine. The share of the agricultural sector in total employment in Ukraine is much higher than in Poland, while the share of the industrial sector is significantly higher in Poland than in Ukraine. The service sector has a surprisingly higher relative importance in Ukraine, which may be due to the slower rate of growth of industrial development in this country in recent years.

Keywords: industry, agriculture, services sector, employment patterns, labor productivity