The exodus effect
But businesses say a lot of heavy lifting remains to be done.
Of all the new EU member states, Poland is the biggest exporter of labor. Though one might guess that with a 15.5-percent unemployment rate the country would have a sufficient supply of workers to share with everyone, some businesses on the home front are struggling to fill vacancies. While some sectors have managed to raise wages in an attempt to keep employees at home, other cash-strapped businesses have been left to watch badly needed skills migrate abroad.
Around a million Poles have left the country to look for a better-paid job abroad since Poland joined the EU in May 2004. The bulk of them have gone to the UK or Ireland, but a steady flow of economic migrants has also been heading for Germany, though the country still hasn't opened its labor market to its eastern neighbors.
Those who decide to try their luck away from home come from a variety of backgrounds, but certain professional groups are particularly sought after and can enjoy significant financial rewards. Construction workers, architects, nurses, doctors and IT specialists are more than welcome in "old" member states, and the remuneration they can expect is far better than what they could ever dream of at home.
The doctor is out
Krzysztof Bukiel, head of the Doctors' Trade Union of Poland (OZZL) says it is hard to estimate exactly how many doctors have left the country since the only indicator is the number of qualification certificates issued, but he says the phenomenon is widespread.
"Looking for work abroad is especially popular among anesthetists. Four to five percent of them have already left the country, some people believe that even eight percent of them work abroad. Then there are surgeons and young doctors who often go abroad to pass their specialization exams and start their practice," Bukiel says.
According to the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists (NIL), the number of anesthetists who are now working abroad could amount to as much as 16 percent of all members of the profession, as this is the percentage which had asked for a qualification certificate by June 2006. The data provided by NIL also indicates that some 13 percent of heart surgeons, 15 percent of plastic surgeons and eight percent of radiologists have asked to have such documents issued.
Bukiel stresses that Poland already has one of the lowest rates of doctors per capita in Europe, with only the UK in a worse situation. Recent government prognoses show that by 2010 the shortage of nurses and midwives will exceed 61,000.
Brick by brick
The other professional group whose absence is already being felt at home is construction workers. Utilities and building companies alike are raising the alarm - it is getting increasingly difficult to find qualified builders.
"The problem definitely exists and is becoming more and more visible. The primary reason for this is that the economy is doing very well and we've got a boom on the real-estate market. The second factor is that many construction workers left the country to get a better paying job abroad," Marcin Górzyński, CEO of Aquila Park, a development and investment company, told WBJ. "The craftsmen that are hardest to find are bricklayers, steel fixers and specialists in different installation branches. Basically, we're missing those who were treated the worst for many years. People thought laying bricks was not such a big deal and anyone could do it. Well, now they've realized that it actually is a big deal. But the bricklayers have left to work in England," he adds.
"The situation on the construction market is difficult, as many qualified workers have gone abroad to pursue their dreams. On the Polish market, representatives of Irish or English companies have appeared, hunting for Polish craftsmen. Construction has become a much bigger issue than selling real estate," agrees Józef Wojciechowski, majority shareholder and president of JW Construction's supervisory board.
Limited incentives
In order to attract the employees they need, construction companies have raised remuneration considerably. According to recent data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS), the average salary in the construction sector in Q2 2006 was zł.2,495, which is nearly a 15-percent increase in comparison with August the year before.
Grażyna Spytek, a labor-market expert at the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan, points to the fact that while private companies struggling to find workers tend to raise salaries, the possibility of doing so in the public sector is rather limited.
Indeed, a nurse with some 20 years' experience earns on average zł.1,200 a month. In the UK, a nurse can count on a salary of zł.11,000, in Sweden zł.7,800 and in Spain zł.4,300. The recent 30-percent raise that the government promised to the health sector doesn't bring the Polish figures even slightly closer to the remuneration offered abroad.
"We estimate that in Poland a doctor earns on average zł.9 per hour. This is a ridiculous amount of money for a person who studied for six years and has to regularly update his or her qualifications with difficult exams. You can't expect these people to stay here and work for virtually nothing if they can go abroad and earn a couple of times more," says Zofia Ignatowicz, spokesperson of NIL.
Cause for concern
In its recent report on job migration in the new EU member states, the World Bank warned that while the inflow of workers is beneficial to the economies of receiving countries, the smaller sending states should adopt a more cautious approach and keep a close eye on the impact the labor force drain can have on their economies in the future. Unlike the Baltic states, which have no surplus workforce to fill the gaps left by emigration, Poland still has a safety margin because of its high unemployment rate. But experts say the relevant solutions should be considered anayway.
"One of the negative impacts of this phenomenon on the Polish economy lies in the fact that the state bears the costs of educating these people and one would expect the return of these costs through the worker's contributions to society, but they emigrate. Certainly, one can't forbid them to go, because we know we can offer them much less then the countries of destination," PKPP Lewiatan's Spytek says.
As for the high unemployment rate, Spytek doubts that it stems from real problems of finding a job. "We should consider whether people really cannot find a job or they just register as unemployed to benefit from certain allowances, e.g. health insurance, and then work in the gray zone," she says.
Practical solutions
The solutions to the labor shortage proposed by the World Bank include lowering labor costs, introducing tax incentives for employers and opening up the labor market for non-EU workers.
Thanks to a recent Labor Ministry ordinance, it is now easier to employ seasonal workers from the east, especially in agriculture where Poles won't work for the wages that farmers can offer. But both Spytek and Górzyński stress that the liberalization of employment regulations in this respect should also cover other sectors.
Spytek points to yet another solution. "There's a lot room for improvement in our educational system. We should focus on permanent education programs so that people can change their qualifications as there is a shortage of people with specific vocational backgrounds, for instance locksmiths, lathe turners and seamstresses," she says.
Whether the government will heed these proposals and how the market will react to the continued exodus remains to be seen. But just as in other developed economies, Poland will have to get used to the fact that its people will be less and less likely to perform labor-intensive jobs for low pay, when the door to better opportunities stands wide open.
