“The registered unemployment rate unexpectedly increased in July to 5.0 percent from 4.9 percent in June” – PKO Research analysts comment on the data from the preliminary estimate of the Ministry of Family, Work and Social Policy. The lower July unemployment rate was last recorded in 1990.
Unemployment up. Still one of the lowest in Europe
According to the data from the ministry, 766.4 thousand people were registered as unemployed at labor offices at the end of July. According to preliminary data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, this is 16.1 thousand fewer than in the same period of the previous year. Traditionally, the lowest unemployment was recorded in the Wielkopolska province – last month it amounted to 2.9 percent.
Poland remains a country with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union – according to data published by Eurostat. The unemployment rate in June this year, calculated in accordance with the definition adopted by Eurostat, amounted to 3 percent, compared to 6 percent in the EU and 6.5 percent in the euro zone. euro. Thus, Poland took second place in terms of the lowest unemployment rate in the EU after the Czech Republic (2.7%).
The number of people who are professionally active has decreased. Entrepreneurs draw attention to rising labor costs
“As a rule, at this time of year we have declines. However, the increase in unemployment is largely the result of a decrease in the denominator, i.e. the number of economically active people estimated by the Central Statistical Office, by over 200 thousand. Such fluctuation is not unusual, but it is usually reversed in the following month. The unemployment rate adjusted by us increased to around 5.1 percent. On the positive side, the ministry's data indicate an increase in the number of job offers by 3.5 percent year-on-year,” write PKO Research analysts.
The Lewiatan Confederation, in a comment sent to our editorial mailbox, like PKO analysts, points out that the static increase in unemployment results not from a larger number of unemployed people, but from a decrease in the number of employed people. According to the organization associating entrepreneurs, a smaller number of working people is a response to the economic conditions in Poland.
“The change in the number of employees itself does not indicate such large reductions in employment, exceeding 200 thousand. We therefore have a partial response of the economy to the rising labor costs and the costs of business activity in general – an escape to the grey zone. It is worth recalling that in July we had another increase salaries minimum wage and it was probably this that influenced the rather unusual increase in the unemployment rate for this month,” we read in the commentary of the Lewiatan Confederation.