Low Unemployment In Western Europe Helps Poland

Germany's unemployment rate fell to 9.6 percent marking a low of only 4 million unemployed workers nationwide, the lowest since October 2002. Similar declines in the rest of Europe are tokens of gathering health for those nation's economies.

Germany's unemployment rate was a factor in the election defeat of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's center-left government last year. That was after the jobless rate soared to a high of more than 5 million last year. It was the first time for such a high rate since World War II, BusinessWeek.com reported on Thursday.

Therefore, Germany's unemployment rate was high on Chancellor Angela Merkel's priorities.

"This is a good, outstanding and wonderful development, but one that also challenges us to even more efforts" to combat unemployment, Vice Chancellor Franz Muentefering told Germany's parliament.

The jobless rate also was lower in France, down to a five-year low of 8.8 percent in October. Those lower Western European rates could explain why even though Poland's unemployment rate stands at 15 percent that nation has a shortage of manual laborers.

Poland's skilled laborers are having no problem crossing borders and finding work in Western European countries. That means some construction projects in Poland are having trouble meeting deadlines, USA Today reported Thursday.

"Everybody's left for Britain or Ireland," said Filip Wilczynski, who runs a gravel and construction company in Ostroleka, a small city some 75 miles north of Warsaw. "There's nobody left to hire."

Source:By Linda Young,

allheadlinenews.com