The last three decades on the Polish labor market have been a period of intense changes. From huge unemployment to the employee market we have been observing for several years. We invite you to read!
Structural unemployment
After democratic changes, unemployment in Poland increased from month to month. In January 1990 there were 56,000 people out of work, but by October more than a million people were out of work. Until 1992, unemployment in Poland continued to rise to 16.1 percent in January 1995. However, in the same year to December, it fell to 14.9 percent in the same year. Below 10 percent Unemployment fell for the first time in May 1998 (9.7 percent), but in January 2002 it exceeded 20 percent for the first time in history. (20.1%). Only eight years later, in 2008, we regained balance and unemployment fell below 10 percent. In April 2019 it amounted to 5.6 percent.
Average and minimum salary
The first years of the Third Polish Republic were associated with hyperinflation, which significantly offset the increase in wages, but since 1995, the average wage has been steadily increasing. In the mid-1990s, an average Pole earned PLN 702. In 1997 it was just over 1000 PLN (1061 PLN). 2 thousand we exceeded in 2001 (PLN 2061) and three thousand in 2009. Above 4,000 gross Poles earned on average in 2011, and over 5,000 - in 2018. The minimum salary, which in 1995 amounted to a meager 260 zlotys, is constantly increasing. The amount of PLN 1,000 was achieved and exceeded only in 2008 (PLN 1,126). For the first time, Poles earned at least PLN 2,000 in 2017.