Employment losses in Poland slowed in January thanks to a turnaround in consumer demand, official figures have disclosed.

The eastern European country's Statistical Office revealed that jobs at companies with more than nine employees fell 1.4 per cent last month year-on-year, which is 0.4 per cent less than the decline recorded in December, Bloomberg reported.

This is substantially less than forecast before the release of the data by a group of ten economists, who predicted a decrease of 2.1 per cent.

Overall, the government agency disclosed that employment rose by 46,000 in January to 5.3 million.

Aleksandra Bluj, economist at Warsaw-based Bank Pekao, suggested the data indicates that the labor market is recovering from the economic downturn.

He told the news agency: "The employment data came as a positive surprise. Lower-than-expected employment cuts support a stable outlook for consumer spending."

Earlier this week, a plan released by the Polish government to prepare the country's economy to adopt the euro revealed that unemployment will not begin to fall until 2012.