Polish Migration

Sad Face of Migration

Poles do not want to live in cities any longer and people are making their escape. The newest report on the makeup of Poland’s population in 2012 by the Central Statistical Office (GUS) has just been released. Poland’s current population is 38.5 million and about 15.2 million live in the countryside, while around 23.3 million live in cities. Last year, 244,000 people moved to the countryside, which is 35,300 more than people who moved in the opposite direction. This data does not only apply to Warsaw as, according to official data, 6,368 people moved to the capital last year. Cities, however, have nothing to worry about with regards to depopulation as the majority of citizens who decided to abandon crowded urban areas are actually moving to suburbia and other areas around cities. Polish people are migrating mainly due to economic reasons. The high level of unemployment (13.4% at the end of 2012) is even higher in the eastern regions of Poland (for example, 21.2% in Warmia and Mazury). People are therefore looking for job opportunities in other parts of the country. However, many Poles continue to move abroad with Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands being the most popular destinations. The vast majority of Poles leave in search of a better salary, although some claim that that it is for family reasons, while others wish to study abroad. In 2012, the population of Poland fell by approximately 5,000 people when compared with the previous year. This means that 1 in every 100,000 citizens has left the country. However, it is thanks to migration abroad that Poland has not been so badly hit by the global economic crisis. In the years 2004-2010, Polish emigrants sent more than EUR 30 billion back to Poland. Interestingly, over exactly the same period, Poland received EUR 16.5 billion in EU subsidies.
Wp.pl

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Polish Satisfaction Guaranteed

Glass Half Full?

Despite the crisis, the level of happiness in Poland remains high. It sounds strange but an incredible 37% of Poles declare that they feel fulfilled, content and happy. Since 1988, when a similar study was conducted for the first time, the level of Polish optimism has not been higher. Poles are in high spirits as opposed to everyone and everything around them. Unemployment may exceed 15% by the end of 2013 and will be at its highest level for years. There is no chance of any increase in salaries. What is more, most are seeing their wages slashed. The only rises which Polish people can expect are in the shops and stores as prices are continually on the increase. The state budget is in such a poor condition that the government is trying to find money in the pockets of the average Jan Kowalski. Tax offices are overzealously checking not only large companies, but also ordinary people. Problems with health services are not out of the ordinary. Therefore, on paper the average Kowalski should be depressed. However, the opposite is true. “Complaining is no longer trendy. Being happy is. The whole world is OK now and Poles want to be a part of this,” said Jacek Santorski, a business psychologist. The market research institution CBOS found that almost two-fifths of Poles (the aforementioned 37%) claim to be happy and feel fulfilled in their lives. There are three times fewer people who state that their life is tainted with bad luck (12%). Compared with 1988, the number of people who consider themselves happy has doubled. The reasons for this happiness seem to be quite trivial. There is almost universal (92%) satisfaction with children, while the vast majority of spouses (82%) are happy with their relationships. The majority of people who feel positive about their marriage are people between the ages of 25 and 34. For 77% of Poles, the source of the most satisfaction in life are relationships with friends and colleagues. Almost eight out of ten respondents (78%) are satisfied with where they live, and would not like to move. 59% of Poles are happy with their health, despite popular opinion.
Interia.pl

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Long Polish Weekends

The Polish Way

Increasingly fewer Polish people want to work during ‘long weekends’. Research carried out by Work Service concludes that Poles prefer to take time off and rest. The number of people taking leave during ‘long weekends’ has increased by 11% this year. Work Service asked people if they took time off during the May weekend. According to the research, 44% took at least one day off during the first week of May. Of this group, 31% took three whole days off. That is 200% more people than last year. “Workers have gotten used to weekend trips and that is why they are more likely to take days off. The increase is significant. In some companies this means that there are several hundred fewer workers during this period,” says Tomasz Hanczarek, chairman of Work Service. He adds that that this is beneficial phenomenon. “Instead of using costly equivalents (bonuses etc), workers use their leave in the normal way,” says Hanczarek. Work Service concluded that people with higher education as well as young people are most likely to take days off during ‘long weekends’. Older workers and people living in rural areas are more likely to stay at work during this period. “A tendency to take short holidays and short trips is a part of one’s lifestyle, usually favoured by young and educated people from larger cities. Short trips to the seaside or to the mountains with friends are very trendy,“ says Krzysztof Inglot, manager of Work Service. 30% of Poles planned to holiday for the Corpus Christi ‘long weekend’. The majority will holiday for three to four days. 65% of those surveyed do not plan to travel anywhere. “The majority of Poles choose to spend their days off somewhere in Poland. Holidays abroad are not common. Most cannot afford it, and even if they can they prefer to have longer holidays during the summer,” adds Krzysztof Inglot.
Rzeczpospolita

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College Graduates Unemployed

Looking for Work

Sometimes even fluency in Arabic does not guarantee a salary above PLN 2,000 for college graduates. What kind of job offers await the young and unemployed at employment agencies? Current unemployment amongst young people is at record-breaking levels. For those with a higher education it seems to be even worse. At the end of March, more than 2,500 college graduates were registered as unemployed. Things have never looked so bad. What do employment agencies in larger Polish cities have to offer those who are young and unemployed? The situation is not encouraging. In Poznań a qualified eurhythmics (music) teacher might earn PLN 20 an hour. A craft, design and technology graduate fluent in English or German would be paid a meagre PLN 2,500 a month, the salary of an accountant is similar. An IT specialist might earn PLN 1,200 working part time. He or she does not have to have a higher education, being a graduate of a IT high school is enough. A company in Wrocław is looking for a finance director, but the requirements are necessarily high: apart from fluency in English and Russian, a good command of Ukrainian is required. Knowledge of a rare language, however, does not guarantee extra money. A trade company is looking for someone fluent in Arabic, but pays only PLN 1,800 a month. A kindergarten teacher might earn around PLN 2,400. In Kraków, accountants have the greatest chance of finding a job. Their salary varies between PLN 1,300 to PLN 7,000 per month. The situation of technical engineers in Kraków is not so bright, however. An engineer working as a solar panel specialist might earn about PLN 1,500. In Łódź a broker’s assistant, with an average knowledge of English, might make about PLN 1,600, the same as a psychologist or physiotherapist.
Gazeta Wyborcza

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Tech Colleges Growing

Technical Growth

Science graduates do not have problems finding a job. Despite the demographic decline, there is a steady increase in the number of students who want a technical education. Increasingly more women choose technical universities and technical studies. Prof Wiesław Ciężkowski, dean of the Faculty of Ground Engineering, Mining and Geology from Wrocław University of Technology, tells Newseria News Agency that every year the number of candidates for first degree studies rises. What is more, the number of candidates for second degree studies remains at a constant level. Ciężkowski says that about 30% of students are women and in some faculties they are in the majority. Furthermore, during the last academic year women were among the best graduates. As he stresses, the problem of unemployment is not so serious among his graduates. Many of them went on to achieve great success in world mining in Australia, Africa and North America or found employment in industry and mining colleges the world over. The mining industry relates not only to lignite coal but also to excavated copper and other raw materials by KGHM (Polish Copper). Professor Piotr Czaja, dean of the Faculty of the Mining and Ground Engineering from the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, claims that there is a great interest in mining studies and they also do not have any problems finding candidates in their faculty. We have excellent candidates, so we have a wider choice. The situation has improved significantly in comparison to the nineties, when the popularity of mining studies was lower. The rector of AGH stresses that the college makes a profit on its close cooperation with business and entrepreneurs. On the other hand, Polish mining colleges are not free of problems. Professor Tadeusz Słomka, rector of the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, emphasises that colleges have a natural tendency to adapt their programme of studies to their current staff. This situation should be changed and the programmes should conform to market requirements. Słomka thinks that the best solution is to have a variety of lectures which are taken by practitioners. At the same time these lectures are very popular among students.
Wirtualna Polska

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Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Poorer

Polish Development (Wyborcza.pl)

The eastern part of Poland still lags behind western Poland but there are glimmers of hope. Rzeszów and Lublin have shown that after years of isolation it is still possible for provincial towns to shine. According to Poland’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) only a few regions have shown positive GDP growth. These ‘positive’ regions include those surrounding Warsaw, Gdańsk, Łódź, Wrocław and Poznań. Certain areas and regions have managed to do little in the years 2000-2010. Szczecin typifies this with only a 14.3% over this ten-year period. What is more, poorer regions have faired worse than richer regions in this leaner time meaning that the divide between the rich and poor has widened. The growth of Silesia has also slowed due to the fact that one of its major advantages – motorways – is no longer unique. Infrastructure across the whole of Poland has improved with thousands of motorways and roads being built in the last decade. Silesia is no longer the land of the best infrastructure. A major positive point, however, is the fact that Poland’s growth is not, like in the Czech Republic, Hungary or Slovakia, centred on only one city yet spread across the major centres mentioned above.
Wyborcza.pl

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Poles in Eastern Germany

Popular for Poles

Low real estate prices and the current system of social benefits are the main reasons for the migration of Poles to Germany. The border between Germany and Poland is vanishing and new research shows that Poles from western Poland are more often opting to work in Poland and live in Germany or the other way around.  Several days ago, the Institute of Public Affairs published a report on this topic and now Dziennik Gazeta Wyborcza also touches upon it. What is so attractive about Germany for Polish people? “Above all, affordable housing,” claim the authors of the research. The prices of real estate in the eastern Länder are frequently lower than in Poland, and the choice of real estate is wider. The second reason is the benefit system. “German social benefits paired with a regular income in the form of a job guarantees better living standards than in Poland,” state the authors of the report.

Finding a job is a bigger problem. In this region, unemployment is quite high and if enterprises recruit, they search for candidates with a good command of German and high qualifications. Meanwhile, the majority of Polish migrants are people with poor education, qualifications and a poor command of German. Poles find jobs mainly in three sectors: at local offices, in services aimed at Poles, or they decide to launch their own companies.  At the end of 2010, there were over 27,000 Polish enterprises registered in Germany. Poles launch fewer companies in Berlin and a great deal more in the Länder by the Polish border, where there are niches to be developed. These Länder also benefit from Polish migration. “The benefits include, among others, the re-capitalisation of the real estate infrastructure and an inversion of negative demographic tendencies,” says the report. Also, the presence of active and enterprising migrants from Poland introduces a stimulating effect. “In the future, this phenomenon may trigger a change in the reluctant attitude of the native inhabitants of the region,” suggest the authors of the report.
Wyborcza.biz

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Work Available, No Candidates

Many Opportunities

As many as 75% of businesses in Poland experience problems in finding appropriate employees. A diploma or degree cannot guarantee a job. Despite an unemployment rate of 13%, increasingly more businesses are complaining about the fact that they cannot find suitable candidates for the jobs on are offer due to a lack of experience, interpersonal skills or motivation. However, employers are found to be too demanding and are giving not enough in return. These and other conclusions have been formulated following one of the most detailed surveys of the job market carried out by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP). The survey shows that the greatest demand is for graduates of the sciences and technology, as well as qualified manual workers. Among the unemployed, we can also find graduates of the humanities, economics or law. Interestingly, the greatest problems in recruiting candidates were reported by employers in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie region, where the highest unemployment rate (over 20%) was observed in February.

In all probability,  the reason is that qualified workers have emigrated to Warsaw and abroad and those who stayed lack the knowledge and skills that are required by businesses, according to Marcin Kocór, one of the Jagiellonian University experts working on the survey. Even though a lack of professional experience seems to be the greatest problem, a number of employers also mentioned a lack of soft skills, i.e. the inability to work in a team, make decisions independently, problems with self-motivation and a lack of initiative. Another issue is communication. According to Monika Zakrzewska (PKPP Lewiatan), most candidates are ‘cyber-children’: they learn how to deal with new technologies almost naturally, but they find it difficult to speak to people face to face or to understand instructions. On the other hand, many employers cannot find good candidates, because they establish exaggerated requirements while not offering a great deal, claims Beata Dutkalska, an HR expert at Manpower. Employers need to realise that if they cannot afford to provide full time employment, Dutkalska contniues, they should have something more to offer, instead.
Rzeczpospolita

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Making Money (but not in Warsaw)

Make Money outside Warsaw

Last year, salaries in Warsaw increased by 0.1%. In other cities, salaries are rising even faster. Last year, the average salary in Warsaw enterprises was PLN 4,683, 4.4% higher than in 2010. However, after taking into consideration inflation, real earnings in Warsaw were only 0.1% higher. To compare, at the same time the average earnings in Katowice enterprises saw an increase of 6.4% (2.1% in real terms), that is PLN 5,005, according to the Statistical Office in Wrocław. Consequently, this city is a better place to work than Warsaw in terms of earnings. Other cities are fast catching up with Wrocław. For instance, in 2009 the average salary in Lublin was 63.5% of the Warsaw salary, while last year it was 74.8%.

What is more, it is no surprise that Katowice tops the salaries charts. Professor Mieczysław Kabaj from the Institute of Labour and Social Studies believes that these increases in salaries are thanks to such industries as mining or metallurgy. Nevertheless, experts are also concerned about the weakening position of Warsaw. “The situation may have been triggered by the fact that companies are cutting costs in Warsaw in order to increase competitiveness,” says Ernest Pytlarczyk, chief economist of BRE Bank. Cutting costs often equates to lower wages. Companies do this when they have a greater choice of potential employees, like in Warsaw. However, many people continue to travel from other cities to look for work in Warsaw. As a result, there are more future employees than employers. The prospects for employees are, therefore, obvious. “Earnings in Warsaw will grow but not as fast as in other cities,” says Professor Kabaj. He adds that increases in salaries are inevitable because companies will have to pay more to keep the best specialists. Also, Warsaw’s low unemployment rate favours salary increases. In February the unemployment rate in Warsaw amounted to 4%, while in Poland as a whole it was 13.5%.
Gazeta Prawna

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EU Welcomes Polish Immigrants

Polish Abroad

Job Centre workers agree that the number of employees recruited abroad has increased in recent months. Experts claim that this may be the first sign of a second economic exodus. The first one took place between 2006 and 2008. According to the Central Statistical Office (GUS) at the end of 2007 nearly 2.3 million Poles worked abroad; at the end of 2009 this number decreased to 1.9 million. However, this number is growing again and may exceed 2 million people. The reason for this upsurge in immigrant workers is due to growing unemployment in Poland which in February reached 13.5%. Among people below 25 the unemployment rate is even higher, and exceeds 25%. The problem is that the younger generation is more eager to pack up and leave the country. Leaving Poland is no longer an unknown quantity. An increasing number of foreign companies are coming to Poland and offering  Polish people profitable contracts. Entrepreneurs from Norway, the Netherlands, France and Belgium are offering jobs to Poles. What is more, Polish Job Centres are helping would-be employees with all the formalities. Emigration is becoming more common as it is much easier now than several years ago. Also, ‘temporary’ emigration is often becoming ‘permanent’ as 1.3 million Poles have found. In many European countries Polish shops, churches and schools are opening up. The only difference between these Polish enclaves is the wages are most certainly not Polish.
Gazeta Prawna

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