Poland's unemployment rate fell to 12.4 per cent in June from 13 per cent in May, representing a 3.6 per cent year-on- year decline from 16 per cent in June 2006, DPA QUOTED the Central Statistical Office (GUS) as saying Tuesday. The June rate represented 1.895 million unemployed - 1.107 million of them women - and a drop of 90,000 from the previous month. The year-on-year unemployment drop between June 2006-7 stood at 592,500 working-age Poles. Poland's labour market has undergone enormous change since the country's 2004 entry into the European Union. Up to an estimated 2 million Poles have looked for better-paid work in Western Europe, leaving labour gaps, particularly in the booming construction sector. Despite Poland's relatively high rate of unemployment as compared to other EU states, Polish contractors complain they have too few working hands to meet demand. Last week Poland eased labour restrictions on citizens of non-EU Ukraine, Russia and Belarus in the hope of attracting workers to fill in the gaps left by the ongoing muscle drain.
