After the Polish plumber in France, one of his countrymen almost made it to Denmark in the middle of August: the Polish paperboy. Until the politicians got involved, and some unemployed Danes were put to the job instead.

This summer two new free newspapers were launched in Denmark: dato («date») and 24timer («24 hours»). These free newspapers weren't just going to be distributed on the streets, but also at home in the capital region of Copenhagen and some other Danish cities. In order to distribute a newspaper, however, one needs paperboys, and since this is not a job with a high status in Denmark, the distribution company BS Distribution ApS, which was responsible for the distribution to the homes, ran into a problem: there were not enough Danish candidates who wanted to do the rounds with the newspaper early in the morning. As is often the case with this kind of jobs, the company tried to solve the problem by recruiting people from Central and Eastern Europe, more specifically Poland and the Baltic countries.

Of course, this initiative from the distribution company attracted the media's and the politicians' attention. On the one hand Denmark has a problem with lots of unemployed people who cannot find jobs, whereas on the other hand companies cannot find people to fill vacancies for which no qualifications are needed. After all, what must one be able to do as a paperboy? One must be able to read addresses, obviously, and in addition have a pair of good legs and a fine back. And be willing to get out of bed early in the morning to go out and earn one's own living instead of simply pocketing unemployment benefits for months and months. And according to the politicians the latter was the real problem in this case once it became clear that the distribution company was not operating with wages that were ridiculously low, but at a normal, Danish level.

People started to blame each other for the problem. The Danish employment agency complained that the distribution company had been much too late to ask for help. The liberal minister of employment Claus Hjort Frederiksen (V) said that the municipal agencies often were too «slack» in getting unemployed people back to work. The director of the job centre in Copenhagen, Flemming Stegmann, admitted that of the 22,000 unemployed people in Copenhagen, only about 5,000 were really available for the labour market. According to Jakob Axel Nielsen of the Conservatives (K), this is indeed a big part of the problem, and this also explains why so many companies do not use the employment agencies when they are looking for new employees: «The companies have no faith in the services, and a lot of unemployed people have nested themselves in the benefit systems because they are not fit for the labour market.»

The left sees things completely differently though. According to the Social Democrats (A) and the Socialist People's Party (SF) the real problem is that finding a job has been made «too complicated», and they also say that Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen should take at least part of the blame. He «ruined» the system of the employment agencies by using too many resources in internal controls and statistical measurings. Their solution for the problem: a government campaign aimed at the employers, so that they can rediscover the employment agencies as a place where they can find new employees. Apparently for the left there's no problem that big that it can't be solved by yet another government campaign.