The Polish economy is benefitting from limited wage pressure despite falling unemployment mostly due to the inflow of workers from Ukraine, which intensified in the last two years, the daily Puls Biznesu wrote citing PKO BP economist Piotr Bujak.
Were it not for immigrants, Polish employers would be facing dramatic problems with recruitment and wage growth would be much higher, he said.
But as Ukrainians now have the option to travel to other EU states without a visa, they will start demanding pay hikes to stay in Poland, Bujak believes.
Another factor keeping pay expectations down could be the still fresh memory of protracted deflation, the economist adds.
BOS Bank economist Aleksandra Swiatkowska thinks that the recently observed employment growth, seemingly diverging from wage growth, may have reflected regulatory changes rather than actual labor demand, hence lack of wage pressure.