Agriculture is the smallest of Poland's 3 major economic sectors,
contributing just 3.8 percent of GDP in 1999. The industrial sector is
significant and wide-ranging and contributed 36.6 percent of GDP, but
the largest and fastest-growing economic sector is services, which
provided 59.6 percent of GDP in 1999.
The total labor force in Poland stood at 17.2 million at the end of
1999, an increase of 1.2 percent since 1995. Men make up 64.3 percent of
the workforce as against 49.7 percent of women, and the share of the
working population is slightly higher in rural areas (57.2 percent) than
in urban areas (56.3 percent), reflecting some increase in
the number of farmers during the 1990s. In 1999, 1.434 million women
and 1.207 million men were unemployed. Overall, 44.4 percent of Poles
were employed in 1998, more than in Italy (40.7 percent) or Spain (41.6
percent), but less than in Germany (48.7 percent) or the United Kingdom
(49.4 percent). The majority of Poland's workers—50.4
percent—were employed in the services sector in 1999, while 27.5
percent were employed in the agricultural sector and 22.1 percent in
industry.
The value of foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to US$26 billion
in 1999, a 332 percent increase since 1995. Many foreign companies
operate in
Poland. Hormel is investing in the meat processing industry, Coca-Cola
and Pepsico have expanded their operations, and fast food chains
including McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, and
Dunkin' Donuts are now familiar names. Other major international
corporations operating in Poland include GM, Daewoo, Volkswagen, and
Fiat in the automotive industry. Power generation, petrochemicals, and
telecommunications are other sectors that attract foreign investors
since demand is high. While economic
restructuring
had already modernized a number of industries (paper and packaging, for
example), foreign direct investment has led to a sizable increase in
imports of technologically advanced machinery and equipment designed to
speed up modernization.
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