January 2010

Volume XXX, No. 1

Professions that offer the worst chances of employment in Poland, and those where demand outstrips supply

Politology: in 2009 there were 581 candidates for one job.
Agricultural technician: 193 candidates for one job.
Physical labor without specialization: four job offers per one candidate.
Office clerk: three offers per candidate.
Body guard: one job per candidate.
Sales personnel: 1.5 jobs per candidate.
Number of professions surveyed: 60.

Source: Anna Cieślak-Wróblewska in Rzeczpospolita, 11 August 2009.

Overproduction of graduates with degrees in humanities and the Polish job market

Number of jobless university graduates in Poland in 2009: 22,000.
Reasons for unemployment: virtually all unemployed have degrees in humanities.
Professions in which hiring is vigorous and employment is increasing: science and engineering, 10.5 percent increase for university graduates; hotels and restaurants, 6.4 percent increase; construction, 5.7 percent; water and waste management, 3.5 percent; car repair, 3.5 percent.
Industries where employment is decreasing: clothes manufacturing, 14.8 percent; car industry, 12.8 percent; furniture production, 7.4 percent; tool and die production, 4.6 percent.
Unemployment in Poland in September 2009: 10.9 percent.

Source: Central Statistical Office, <http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/PUBL_oz_inform_o_syt_spol-gosp_kraju_I_III_kw_2009.pdf>, accessed 26 October 2009; http://cyniczny77.blog.onet.pl/3425904,270342316,1,200,200,63814866,270907985,4803321,0,forum.html (accessed 26 October 2009).

Poles’ opinions about relations with neighbors

Percentage of Poles who think that Polish-German relations are good: 35 percent.
Percentage of Poles who think that Polish-Russian relations are good: 4 percent.
Percentage of Poles who think that Polish-German and Polish-Russian relations are bad: 10 percent and 40 percent, respectively.
Percentage of Poles who believe that the Polish government truly wants a reconciliation with Russia: 71 percent.
Percentage of Poles who believe that the Russian government wants such reconciliation: 26 percent.

Source: CBOS poll, as reported by Michał Jankowski in Donosy, no. 4962 (16 September 2009).

Opinions of Poles about Polish sovereignty

Percentage of Poles who think that ceding too much power to the European Union threatens sovereignty: 73 percent.
Further dangers to sovereignty as perceived by respondents: activities of German organizations serving the so-called expellees: 71 percent; weakness of Polish economy: 54 percent; low quality of Poland’s political elites: 51 percent; energy insecurity and energy dependence on Russia: 38 percent.

Source: Telephone poll conducted by GfK Polonia for Rzeczpospolita on 7-8 November 2009, as reported by Rzeczpopolita, 10 November 2009.

Decreasing popularity of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his party

Percentage of Poles who supported Donald Tusk’s government in October 2009: 38 percent.
Percentage of Poles who supported Tusk in October 2008: 54–58 percent.

Source: CBOS poll, as reported by Michał Jankowski in Donosy, no. 4980 (28 October 2009).

Gas sales from Russia to Poland

Amount of gas Russia has agreed to sell Poland until 2037: 11 billion cubic meters per year.

Source: Agnieszka Łakoma, Rzeczpospolita, 30 October 2009.

Money in circulation in Poland

Amount of money in circulation in October 2009: 710.9 billion zloties, an 11.8 percent increase over October 2008.

Source: National Bank of Poland, as reported by Łukasz Wilkowicz in Rzeczpospolita, 13 November 2009.

Russian education in 2009

Number of rural schools in Russia that close annually: 800.
Number of rural schools that closed “in the last several years”: 12,000.
Percentage of Russians who never read books: 35 percent.
Among those who read, the kind of book most in demand: pulp fiction.
Percentage of Russians who have never bought a book: 50 percent.

Source: Yuri Zarakhovich, “Medvedev Calls for an Intellectual Breakthrough as Russian Education Declines,” Eurasia Daily Monitor, vol. 6, no. 188 (14 October 2009).

World economic crisis and Russia

World economic crisis and Russia
Percentage decline of Russian exports of chemical industry products in the first nine months of 2009: 41 percent.
Percentage decline of exports of heavy machinery: 38 percent.
Percentage decline of total industrial production in that period: 16.5 percent.
Percentage decline (as estimated by the World Bank) of Russian GDP in 2009: 8.7 percent.
Year in which Russia is expected to reach pre-crisis GDP: 2012.
Estimated unemployment in Russia in 2009: 9 percent.
Percentage decline (as estimated by the World Bank) of world GDP in 2009: 2.2 percent.
World Bank estimate of the average price of oil in 2010: 75.3 dollars.

Sources: Sergei Shelin, “Vtorogodniki spada” and Andrei Kovalevskii et al., “Khristenko vypisal tabletku ot padeniia,” <gazeta.ru>, 15 October 2009; Olga Tanas, “Chetvertoe padenie Rossii,” <gazeta.ru>, 11 November 2009 (accessed 11 November 2009).

Chechnya in 2009

Number of Chechens in Russian jails accused of participating in national insurrections: 20,000.
Among these, percentage of those who never participated in any armed struggle: 90 percent.
Akhmed Zakayev’s opinion about the attempt to establish a supranational Islamic Emirate in the Caucasus: this was conceived by Russia’s FSB in their Lubyanka offices.
Further developments foreseen by Zakayev: Russia will present a statement at the UN Security Council meeting saying that the Islamic Emirate is part of Al-Qaeda, is supported by Georgia, and should be destroyed by any means.
Memorable quote: “In order to continue making Chechens destroy one another, [the managers in Moscow] make sure that there always are two camps in Chechnya, radically at war with each other.”

Source: Exiled Chechen intellectual Akhmed Zakayev, in an interview with Russian daily Kommersant-Vlast', no. 42 (845), 26 October 2009.

Success has many fathers

Recent claimants to participation in the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989: Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitrii Rogozin and deputy head of the Russian Duma Vladimir Zhirinovskii claimed a lead role for Mikhail Gorbachev; General Wojciech Jaruzelski, strangulator of the Solidarity Labor Movement, who claimed credit for himself.

Sources: Dziennik, 11 November 2009 (www.dziennik.pl/polityka/article477650/Umre_jako_zolnierz_Syberia_byla_gorsza.html); Kommersant, 11 November 2009 (www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1272523&ThemesID=635), both accessed 11 November 2009.

Gay Poland

Number of people participating in the publicity-rich “Gay March to King Władysław Warneńczyk’s (1424–1444) grave in the Wawel Cathedral”: nine, including two Hungarians.

Source: Ewa Łosińska, “Krakowski marsz gejów,” Rzeczpospolita, 31 October 2009.

Our electronic future

Growth rate of electronically-conveyed information in 2009: every two years the total available information doubles.
Estimated growth rate of electronically-conveyed information in 2030: every 72 days the amount of electronic information will double.

Source: Eric Mistewicz, “Gazety się kończą, czas na internet,” Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (Poland), 11 November 2009.