The unemployment rate in Poland dipped slightly to 13.1 per cent in March after a marginal rise to 13.2 per cent in February from January, the country’s Central Statistical Bureau (GUS) announced last Wednesday.

The number of jobseekers at the end of March fell to 2.13 million, down from February’s 2.15 million, which represented 40,000 more jobless Poles than in January.

In March 2010, the jobless rate in Poland, a country of 38 million inhabitants, stood at 13.0 percent of the workforce. Unemployment traditionally rises in Poland in the winter months, when activity drops in sectors such as construction and farming.

Poland has had one of the EU’s highest rates of unemployment despite a flourishing economy in recent years – although joblessness in a handful of other member states far outstripped Poland’s during the global economic crisis.

Experts underscore a shortage of retraining programmes to boost jobless Poles’ chances of finding work, housing problems for people who try to move out of high unemployment areas and the role of the “grey” economy.