Severe labour shortage in Poland with unemployment down to 13%
Classified Polnews
Poland's Minister of Labour announced that the Polish unemployment rate is down to 13% and should drop further in the next month. In spite of the large number of people that this figure shows could work, the Minister of Labour Anna Kalata has also said that Poland is suffering from a severe labour shortage.
Laborers Needed
Polish workers are leaving Poland for better work opportunities and living conditions in the West. They are sending money back to Poland but they are not coming back to work.
Combined with the inflow of money from the European Union, the money being sent back to the country by these emigrant Polish workers is driving the economy. The Polish economy is simply booming.
And Poland needs workers to support the growth that accompanies the boom.
According to Minister Kalata, "There are severe discrepancies in our labour market. The need for labour is particularly acute in the construction sector in the run-up to Euro 2012."
Some do not understand why there is such a high unemployment rate and worker shortage at the same time. And it would appear that filling construction jobs should be easier than filling so many other type jobs.
Part of the answer lies in fact, as stated by the Minister of Labour, that 30 percent of the people who are on the unemployment rolls do not want to work. See Polish Government Admits 30% Of Unemployed Don’t Want Work There is no data to confirm the accuracy of this number. It could be higher and there may be a number of fraudulent unemployment claims that are not reported.
The loss of Polish workers to the West and the high percentage of workers not wanting to work are Polish problems that require long term solutions; none of which have been announced.
So the Government is looking at short term solutions to replace the people leaving. Poland's Prime Minister To Replace Polish Emigrants With Chinese And Indians
The Government has not indicated where these new emigrants will find housing and how long they are expected to stay in the country.
And the Government has not announced how it intends to get the 13% on unemployment working. But is says the figure will go down next month. Perhaps more of the millions of Polish workers that want to emigrate to the West to find higher paying work will emigrate. Millions Of Polish Workers Want To Leave Poland - Poll
