Poland's unemployed refuse low-paid jobs

A shortage of people willing to take low-paying jobs, despite an unemployment rate of 15 percent, has Poland's authorities concerned.

Officially, about 660,000 Poles have left for Western countries in the past two years looking for better-paying jobs than they can get at home, the Serbian news agency Beta said Monday.

With a population of 38 million, Poland has 2.3 million unemployed people. The Polish Ministry for Labor estimates about 1.5 million people are illegally employed, with their employers evading paying state taxes.

Polish and foreign investors report problems finding university-educated and highly skilled workers as well as construction workers, Beta said.

With Poland's gross domestic product rising at a 5 percent annual rate, the government may have to open borders to foreign workers from Eastern European countries, economists said.

Pscemislaw Gacek, an economist specializing in work force, told Warsaw's Gazeta Wyborcza daily it would take 15 to 20 years until salaries in Poland catch up to those elsewhere in the European Union.
Source: United Press International, upi.com