The year 2024 saw the highest level of mass layoffs in Poland since the early months of the pandemic. According to the daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita, planned group layoffs affected 37,300 people, marking a year-over-year increase of over 20%. The actual number of layoffs was even more severe, with 27,000 people losing their jobsâa staggering 60% increase compared to 2023.
The wave of layoffs is far from over. Many large-scale job cuts announced in 2024 are only now being implemented. Among them, Polandâs national postal service, Poczta Polska, is set to lay off 8,500 employees. Rafako, an energy sector company, faces the potential dismissal of 900 workers. Several other major layoffs scheduled last year are expected to take effect in the spring of 2025, including over 400 employees from the furniture manufacturer BRW. In January 2025 alone, companies announced intentions to cut 9,500 jobsâcompared to just 340 in the same period the previous year.
Unemployment in Poland Continues to Rise
Poland is experiencing its fourth consecutive month of rising unemployment. Preliminary estimates from the Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Policy indicate that the unemployment rate increased again in January 2025. It climbed from 4.9% in October to 5.0% in November and 5.1% in December, before accelerating to 5.4% in January. This translates to an additional 52,000 registered job seekers within just one month.
Regional disparities remain stark. The lowest unemployment rate in January 2025 was recorded in the Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) region at 3.3%, while the highest was in the Subcarpathian (Podkarpackie) region at 9.1%. The total number of registered unemployed individuals in Poland now stands at 839,000.
Despite economic and demographic factors that should be driving unemployment down, the trend continues upward. Polandâs labor market is undergoing a demographic shift, with large numbers of baby boomers retiring each month while fewer young workers enter the workforce. Even without economic expansion, this demographic trend should, in theory, reduce unemploymentâyet the opposite is happening, indicating deeper structural issues in the job market.
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