Persons who have reached the age of 18 but have not yet reached retirement age, who are not employed and not engaged in any other paid work, who have no regular source of income, and who are able and available to take up full-time employment as defined for a given occupation or service, or other paid work; or, if they are disabled persons, able and available to take up employment for at least half of the full-time working hours in a given occupation or service, registered with the powiat labour office competent for their place of residence, with additional exemptions regarding sources of income as set out in the Act.

Unemployed persons include those not attending school, with the exception of those attending an adult school, a stage II sectoral vocational school on a full-time or part-time basis, a post-secondary school on a full-time or part-time basis, or those taking external examinations covering the curriculum of an adult school or a stage II sectoral vocational school, or those attending a higher education institution on a part-time basis, or those attending an art school providing exclusively artistic education.

• The long term unemployed
• Unemployment benefit