Just 10 years ago, Poland was responsible for 3.3 percent of the EU’s GDP. Today, that figure is close to 4 percent, meaning Poland is growing faster than most of the EU and catching up fast with the older member states.
Apart from the smallest countries of Malta and Luxembourg, Poland is the only country in the EU where employment actually increased (by 0.5 percent) in the third quarter of this year, and it also recorded a relatively low drop in GDP versus last year.
Only two EU economies have actually grown this year: Ireland’s and Sweden’s. Still, despite Polish GDP falling by 1.8 percent, its share of the EU’s GDP rose in the third quarter from 3.82 percent to 3.94 percent. Only Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands did better in that respect. Eurostat EU countries’ year over year change in employment – Q3 2020. Ireland is certainly the “green isle” in terms of GDP growth, but Poland’s creation of jobs makes it a green island in terms of employment. So far, the pandemic has not hurt the labor market in Poland. In the third quarter of this year, employment rose by 361,000, with a year-over-year increase of 81,000.
In contrast, year-over-year employment across the EU fell by 2 percent last year with 4.3 million jobs disappearing. The gap is even wider when you take into account hours worked. In Poland, that figure increased by 0.9 percent, whereas in the EU as a whole, it fell 3.7 percent. The government’s economic protection measures helped maintain employment levels without reducing the number of hours worked.
The growth in the number of jobs in Poland is accounted for by the entertainment and recreation industry (+19%, 1,068,000 new jobs), public administration (+3%, 106,000) and IT and information (+16%, 69,000). Meanwhile, job losses have been seen in production (-4%, 142,000), retail (-2%, 73,000) and property (-12%, 21,000).
At companies with more than nine employees, income increased by 4.7 percent year over year, with employment falling by 1 percent. This rise in income demonstrates that the labor market has remained in a relatively buoyant state.
All in all, the third quarter of this year has stabilized Poland’s economy, rebounding strongly after the lockdown in the second quarter. According to central statistics, the beginning of the fourth quarter has also been encouraging, with unemployment continuing to fall.
Title image: Warsaw’s skyline, 2020, source: Wikipedia
