A total of 161 companies declared their intention to terminate 19,800 employees. This is the worst result since 2022.
Robert Lisicki, director of the labor department at the Lewiatan Confederation, added that “this shows that things are still not going well in certain sectors of the economy.”
Grzegorz Kuliś, a labor market expert from Poland’s Business Center Club, blamed the recession in Germany, Poland’s main trading partner, where industrial orders have dropped by 5.9 percent and 20,000 companies are expected to go bankrupt, as reported by Polish newspaper Banker.pl.
According to a DGP survey conducted among District Labor Offices, the situation varies depending on the region of the country or even the province.
“There are cities where announcements of group layoffs are increasing. An example is Łódź, where this year, eight plants announced their intention to lay off 1,360 people. Among them is Beko Poland Manufacturing, which plans to lay off 1,093 employees in 2025. Last year, there were eight such plants, but slightly fewer people laid off, 979,” the newspaper notes.
READ MORE: ‘We are bitter’ – Beko shuts down 2 factories in Poland and workers are not happy
Other examples include Zielona Góra, which has announced a 25 percent increase in layoffs year-over-year, partly due to the liquidation of one of its entities. In Warsaw, 39 companies have announced layoffs this year of some 5,800. A year ago, 31 plants cut 6,000 employees. In other cities like Szczecin, layoffs are being announced for the first time.
PKP Cargo, Poland’s largest rail freight carrier in Poland, announced in July it would be cutting 30 percent of employees, or up to 4,142 employees, across the company. The company has been in an ongoing battle with a trade union over the decision.
Remix News just reported yesterday that 2.5 million Poles are living in extreme poverty, while 17 million people, almost half of all Poles, live below the poverty line.
