According to preliminary data from the Ministry of the Family, Labour and Social Policy, the registered unemployment rate at the end of January 2024 was 5.4 % and is 0.1 % lower than the unemployment rate a year ago (i.e. at the end of January 2023).
According to preliminary data, at the end of January 2024, there were 837.7 thousand unemployed people registered in labour offices. Compared to the previous month, the number of unemployed increased by 49.5 thousand people, or 6.3%. There were 19.8 thousand (i.e. 2.3%) fewer unemployed people in the unemployment registers at the end of January 2024 than a year earlier.
The registered unemployment rate in January 2024 increased by 0.3 % points on a monthly basis. Such increases at the beginning of the year also occurred in previous years and amounted to 0.3 % points in 2023, 0.1 % points in 2022, 0.2 % points in 2021 and 0.3 % points in 2020.
The increase in the unemployment rate at the beginning of the year is circannual. The reason for the increase is the cessation or reduction of labour activity in industries strongly linked to weather conditions, i.e. agriculture, fruit growing, construction, tourism, event organisation.
In January 2024 , according to preliminary data, employers reported to labour offices 96.4 thousand job vacancies and occupational activation places, i.e. by 28.4 thousand (41.8%) more than a month earlier and by 4.5 thousand (4.9%) more than in January 2023. The largest number of job offers reported to labour offices in January 2024 were for production workers (5.6% of offers), the so-called other labourers performing simple industrial work (4.5%), domestic workers (4.1%).
Poland still remains a country with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union. It ranks second among EU countries in this respect (after Malta). According to data published on 1 February 2024, the unemployment rate, calculated in accordance with the definition adopted by Eurostat was in December 2023 was 2.7% in Poland, compared to 5.9% in the European Union and 6.4% in the Eurozone.
Adrian Andrzejewski