3/07/2007

Poland's jobless rate inches down to 15 percent in February

Poland's jobless rate dipped to 15 percent in February from 15.1 percent a month earlier, Poland's labor minister said Tuesday in releasing preliminary figures.

The 15 percent unemployment rate marks a significant drop from 18 percent in February 2006, giving a boost to the conservative government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Official statistics are expected in late March. However, those data seldom diverge by more than one-tenth of a percentage point from the preliminary Labor Ministry figures.

Poland's unemployment rate has gradually declined since reaching a post-communist peak of 20.7 percent in February 2003. However, it still remains the highest in the expanded 27-nation EU.

The fall in unemployment comes amid strong economic growth of nearly 6 percent in this ex-communist country that joined the EU in 2004. But some government critics argue that the fall in the jobless rate results in large part from the fact that hundreds of thousands of Poles have left the country since then to work in Western Europe.

Source:iht.com



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