Job prospects bleak for school-leavers with 200,000 likely to be without work

Poland's job market will be swamped later this month by 400,000 secondary and high school graduates, with only half of them likely to find work. According to a report by the Rzeczpospolita daily, those least likely to be offered a job are vocational and post-secondary school graduates, who last year made up 75% of all unemployed school-leavers. "There are very few offers for people with a medium level education. They have no experience," said Barbara Zajac from the Katowice Labor Office. Also facing problems will be graduates with high school diplomas in trade or sales, and secondary level degrees in economics. "A third of students study in those fields, so there are large numbers of people with similar qualifications entering the job market. That's why it's difficult for them to find a job," explained Ryszard Szubanski from the Education Ministry. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1) J.K.