We took into account the data from the Labour Force Survey conducted by Statistics Poland. We compared the situation in the labour market at the beginning of 2015 and after three quarters of the previous year. Conclusions? We have observed a regular decrease in the percentage of the long-term unemployed and professionally passive and the unemployment levels have been the lowest since the system transformation.

Fewer and fewer unemployed persons

According to the LFS methodology, in the third quarter of 2018 the unemployment rate amounted to 3.8 percent. This is significantly lower than in the first quarter of 2015, when almost 1.5 million people were unemployed and the unemployment rate was noted at a level of 8.6 percent. In the third quarter of the last year the number of the unemployed amounted to 662 thousand, which means a decrease by approx. 832 thousand of persons remaining in the registers at the beginning of 2015.

- We are approaching the level of the so-called natural rate of unemployment, which means that another as spectacular drops will be difficult to obtain. We want more and more Poles to have jobs, remunerations to increase and families to live in wealth. We attach a lot of importance to activating the long-term unemployed and professionally passive. They constitute unused resources, which we wish to stimulate and return to the labour market – says the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy, Elżbieta Rafalska.

A good condition of the labour market is also visible in statistics measuring the participation of the long-term unemployed (over 12 months) in the general number of the unemployed. In the first quarter of 2015 it amounted to approx. 40 percent and in the third quarter of the last year it dropped to 26 percent. Therefore, we talk about a decrease by 14 percentage points.

It is much faster than the Union average – in the Community countries, in an analogous period of time 5 percentage points drop was noted. In total, in the third quarter of 2018 the participation of the long-term unemployed in the general number of the unemployed in the EU was at a level of approx. 43 percent.

In Poland, the percentage of women searching for a job for over a year decreased in the discussed period of time by 18.6 percentage points, and in case of men – by 11.2 percentage points. On the other hand, approx. 13 percent of men and approx. 7 percent of women (in the general number of the unemployed) look for a job for over two years. This is also much better than at the beginning of 2015; in the case of men it is a decrease by 5 percentage points and in the case of women - as many as 13 percentage points.

Professionally active and passive

In the third quarter of the last year the professional activity rate (in a population of persons aged 20-64) amounted to 75.6 percentage. This is by 2.6 percentage points more than in the first three months of 2015. This rate has been growing both, in the case of men and women – by 2.9 percentage points and 2.2 percentage points, respectively.

If we look at the data regarding persons at the near-retirement pension age (55-64 years old), we can also notice an improvement. In the third quarter of 2018, the total professional activity rate amounted to 51.1 percent and increased in the discussed period of time by 5.2 percentage points (for women by 4.1 percentage points and for men by 6.3 percentage points).

What about persons professionally passive? In the third quarter of the last year, there were over 13.1 million of persons, who have been professionally passive for over 15 years, however, it is again fewer than even three years ago. In comparison to the first quarter of 2015 there are 278 thousand fewer professionally passive men and 214 thousand women.