3/26/2007

Poland's unemployment rate down to 14.9 percent at end of February

Poland's unemployment rate inched down to 14.9 percent in February, the nation's Statistical Office said Friday, a continuing tendency that has given a boost to the conservative government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

The drop is significant, compared with 15.1 percent in January and 18 percent jobless rate for the same month in 2006, and even lower than preliminary figures had predicted.

Still, some 2.33 million people are registered as jobless in this nation of 38 million, state-run Statistical Office said. Preliminary figures had predicted a jobless rate of 15 percent for the month.

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

The fall in unemployment is the result of strong economic growth of nearly 6 percent in this country that joined the EU in 2004. But some government critics attribute the fall in the jobless rate to mass emigration of Poles to better paid jobs in Western Europe.

Source:iht.com



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