According to the European Commission, Poland’s unemployment rate is currently just above 3 percent and the second lowest in the European Union, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced. Morawiecki stated that 2020 was a journey through uncharted economic waters for the country. “We observed what was happening and which best practices we could use. At the same time, the basic light which guided us was the defense of workplaces,” he said. Morawiecki declared that the anti-crisis shields introduced by the government protected many workplaces. He pointed to the data supplied by the European Commission showed that Poland has the second lowest unemployment rate in the EU, which stands at just 3 percent. He noted that data from different industries and sectors of the economy show that layoffs are lower than planned and new workplaces are being created in their place. Morawiecki emphasized that hundreds of thousands of new workplaces were created to employ people who lost their jobs. He added that the basic parameter of people working is higher than it was in 2019.
The Polish prime minister noted that as part of the first anti-crisis shield, more than €33 billion was disbursed out through different tools for companies, and €13.5 billion out of that was offered as a direct financial injection. The head of the Polish government explained that due to the current second wave of the pandemic and the threat of a third one in January through February, the government has prepared an anti-crisis shield 2.0 for companies particularly affected by the virus between October and December 2020. Morawiecki announced that the European Commission (EC) has greenlighted the engagement of Poland’s state measures to assist those companies. He admitted that it did take a while to get the permission, and he was surprised at the delay, as the first shield was activated much quicker because the permissions from the European Commission came faster. “We have been prepared with these tools for ages. Thanks to that, since we have received confirmation from the European Commission, we will pass necessary legislation in short order,” he said. The sum is at least €7.7 billion to save many companies and hundreds of thousands of workplaces. Morawiecki stated that €670 million will be given to micro-companies in the category of up to nine employees. Another €1.5 to €1.8 billion will be provided to small companies with between nine to 49 employees, and the remaining approximately €5 billion to medium-sized and large companies.
