Sunday, April 02, 2006

Not all Polish unemployed want to work

From:The Polish Outlook
Warsaw, Poland 24 March 2006 Poland has been experiencing a long term unemployment rate of about 18%. This is the same as the European Union wide overall, employment rate which it is about that same 18%. In an interesting report on Polish public television a regional Polish government employment office provided some interesting commentary on the unemployment problem in that particular unemployment office's region.

According to the comments , the unemployment problem is related to both human nature and to the Polish method of regulating the Polish work place.

Human beings are human beings and they will take the path that is most beneficial to them. The Polish government gives unemployed of 500 zloty per month whether they get out of bed or not. The minimum wage in Poland is 800 zloty. So to a Polish unemployed person, in many cases, it is best to take the 500 zloty dole from the Polish government than to take a job that pays 800 zloty. In fact, when one factors in the costs of transportation and other incidentals necessary to be employed, the net to worker is less than 500 zloty.

Unfortunately, added to this problem is the fact that many of these unemployed do not want to be retrained to be eligible for higher-paying jobs. They're willing to take their 500 zloty dole and stay out of the work place on unemployment.

The 800 zloty minimum-wage is a deceptive figure. The actual cost to the employer is much higher. Government regulations are such that, in many cases, raising the amount of money offered to employees is not economically feasible because when one adds all the charges added to be allowed to employ a person, the cost becomes prohibitive.

This Polish government employment office opined that the Polish government must take some steps to give businesses incentive to hire people. As it stands, the bulletin boards in their offices are filled with job offers to and these offers are ignored by the unemployed.

Those who have advanced training and marketable skills, find it better to emigrate to Western Europe to work. Pay scales are up to five times as high as they are in Poland.

The result is that those who do not want to work stay in Poland and take money from the Polish government while those who want to work head west.

So there are a large number of jobs in Poland that are unfilled. There are many people leaving the country for Western Europe to receive higher wages. Those staying behind including many who are too lazy to be retrained or not interested in working. Many positions that are unfilled are now being offered to immigrants from the East.