Labourers
Nowadays only casual labourers, recent university graduates and former emigrants are signing up at unemployment offices. According to data provided by the Central Statistical Office (GUS), in November of this year 1,811,000 people were registered at unemployment offices. In spite of the fact that the figure has increased from last year, labour market experts believe that the worst is fortunately behind us. A pessimist would find plenty of disturbing information in the data coming from the market: since November 2008 the total of unemployed people has increased by 30%, 1.44 million people are not eligible for benefit. Economists are setting the record straight though: the recovery is just about to start. “The situation is much better than it was during the previous economic slump.
Employment was at 20% then as companies, after initial layoffs, underwent a thorough restructing. There has been no second wave of layoffs now as companies believe that they cannot afford to decrease their production capacities. It is often wiser to wait a few months until the demand for your products returns to normal,” says Ernest Pytlarczyk, a BRE Bank economist. According to the Ministry of Finance, the current increase in unemployment is not triggered by a decrease in the workforce but rather by increased economic activity of working-age individuals. There are increasingly more former emigrants and recent university graduates registered at unemployment offices and the reason for that is not necessarily because they have recently been laid off. “A 12.5% rate of unemployment was foreseen in the 2009 budget but it is unlikely that we will reach that level. That is indeed proof of the fact that the economy will soon get back on its feet,” says a Polish Employers’ expert. According to recent research, 80% of companies have no plans for layoffs in 2010 while 17% are planning to hire new employees at the beginning of next year.
Gazeta Wyborcza
