Unemployment in Poland is falling. What do the forecasts look like?
According to data published by the Central Statistical Office, the unemployment rate in Poland in January 2023 was 5.5%. This means that out of 1.2 million people of working age, 64.1 thousand were unemployed. Every month the situation improves.
The situation on the labor market depends on many factors, such as the condition of the economy, the level of investment, government policy, and others. In recent years, relatively low unemployment rates have been recorded compared to some European Union countries, which may indicate a relatively good situation on the labour market. The number of jobs also increased, and wages increased.
The number of refugees from Ukraine has certainly had a huge impact on the situation. There are some natural changes taking place in this field,” explains Serhii Levchenko, Head of Foreign Recruitment at LeasingTeam Group. At this point, refugees take up work at lower levels, which is dictated primarily by the lack of knowledge of the Polish language, Polish realities, cultural barrier and the simple desire to take up any job at the first stages of life abroad. This phenomenon is identical to the one that took place after Polish’s accession to the European Union. Like Poles then, today Ukrainians are slowly becoming part of the European reality and will soon start to occupy higher and higher positions, which in turn will cause a decrease in demand for lower-level positions.
Work is lying on the street?
LeasingTeam experts emphasize that the number of offers is definitely growing in the financial and medical industry. Due to the aging of the population, growing medical needs and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry needs more and more employees, such as nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and paramedics,” says Serhii Levchenko. Another group of people who are urgently sought are construction workers: bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers and roofers. There is also a boom in drivers, suppliers, welders, locksmiths, electricians or electromechanics, i.e. qualified employees with technical skills.
Currently, however, the greatest demand for work is in transport and logistics. This is due to the fact that many men from Ukraine worked in this industry, who left to defend their homeland after the war began,” says Anna Ender, Regional Development Director at LeasingTeam Group Polska. Other most sought-after industries are IT (m.in. engineers and database analysts), as well as heavy industry, which suffers the most after the closure of vocational schools (welders, turners, grinders). In the last decade, we have also observed a huge demand for craftsmen. This is due to the trend when in Poland for many years higher education has been a measure of an employee’s value, while vocational education is treated as less valuable. As a result, we have a huge shortage of craftsmen with individual qualifications and a huge number of masters without experience or even a specific learned profession.
The simpler the recruitment process, the easier it is to find employees. Young people are eager to take up professions such as assistants, receptionists, warehouse workers, or online customer service employees,” Levchenko enumerates. This job often requires a nice appearance and communication skills, which often attracts students. In the coming months, it may also be easier to find employees in industries affected by the economic slowdown, such as tourism, gastronomy, entertainment and culture.
Is Poland a “green island”?
Despite the visible increase in demand for employees, according to Anna Ender from LeasingTeam Group, Poland is not a “green island” in Europe. The low level of unemployment is due to the fact that in our society an increasing percentage of people are retiring and it is difficult for us to fill this gap with young working people. Serhii Levchenko is of a similar opinion. Although Poland is still at the forefront of countries with the lowest unemployment in Europe, I remain moderately optimistic about this. The situation is mainly influenced by the demographic state of the country, i.e. the aging society, which inevitably means that there are fewer people of the so-called working age. The economic situation of the country is also of great importance, which means that more and more employees are looking for an additional source of income to improve the household budget. We observed a similar phenomenon during the pandemic and lockdown. Employees confined to their homes, looking for variety in their professional lives, often took up casual jobs, mainly in the logistics industry as couriers and delivery people.
Employees’ time
According to LeasingTeam’s experts, this year will remain the year of the employee, and employers will have to show great flexibility by introducing remote or hybrid work where possible, as well as financial transparency forced by inflation and the rising cost of living. Serhii Levchenko notes that when it comes to employees, there is currently a great need to stabilize the financial situation. “Keeping their finger on the pulse” and constantly observing the labor market, they take part in recruitment processes to check their capabilities – points out the expert. Let’s notice how much the benefits profile attracting potential candidates has changed. Today, employees expect from their employer not only salary transparency, but also clearly defined career paths and development opportunities. This results in job rotation – employees want to improve their qualifications to develop their careers. In the era of globalization of the labor market in certain sectors, such as broadly understood IT, it is easier for an employee to find a job in another city or even country, with different salary realities. All this means that the employer must show considerable flexibility in responding to the needs and expectations of a good, qualified employee if they want to keep them for longer.
Flexibility – this is this year’s key word in the labour market. Employees will also have to demonstrate this trait in cooperation, as an increasing number of companies will switch to hiring people only in the case of higher demand dictated by seasonality and sudden orders.
Doświadczony analityk rynku pracy, specjalizuje się w badaniach nad trendami zatrudnienia i zmianami w strukturze zawodowej. Jego artykuły, publikowane w renomowanych czasopismach branżowych, pomagają czytelnikom zrozumieć dynamikę rynku pracy.
