What was the topic of the Social Dialogue Council meeting in November 2023?
The labor market in Poland was the subject of the plenary meeting of the Social Dialogue Council chaired by Marlena Maląg – Minister of Family and Social Policy.
The meeting took place on November 22, 2023 at the „Dialog” Social Partnership Center. The government side at the meeting was represented by: Sebastian Skuza – Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance, Piotr Pyzik – Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of State Assets and Piotr Bromber – Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Health.
In her speech, Minister Marlena Maląg pointed out that Poland is one of the countries with the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union. She emphasized that the situation on the Polish labor market is very good. This is confirmed by both data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and research carried out by the Central Statistical Office.
Then, the Director of the Labor Market Department – Ewa Flaszyńska gave a presentation on the labor market in Poland. She emphasized that the situation in Poland looked favorable compared to other European Union countries. She noted that the economic activity rate, i.e. the percentage of employed and unemployed people aged 15-64 in the second quarter of this year. was 74% and is only slightly lower than in the EU. She indicated that the unemployment rate measured by the Eurostat method in September 2023 was 2.8%, which means that Poland achieved the second lowest result, together with Malta, in the European Union, a better situation was recorded only in the Czech Republic (2.7%). She informed that the registered unemployment rate at the end of September 2023 ranged from 3.0% in the Greater Poland Voivodeship to 8.3% in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. She emphasized that territorial differences in unemployment still persist, but both in voivodeships and poviats it is significantly weaker than 10 years ago. In large agglomerations, the unemployment rate is only 1% (Poznań, Katowice, Warsaw, Wrocław), although there are also poviats where unemployment is still a big challenge (e.g. Szydłowiec with 24.4% unemployment).
She noted that the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy provides additional support to poviats with the highest unemployment rate. In 2023, additional money was allocated from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy reserves for professional activation in the amount of over PLN 82 million. Moreover, a decision was made to finance pilot projects implemented by voivodeship and poviat labor offices from the Labor Fund reserve. Their aim is to test new methods of cooperation with clients, ways of helping the unemployed, job seekers or employers.
Director E. Flaszyńska emphasized that in order to counteract shortages in the labor market, it is important to identify deficit professions and skills, as well as forecast the demand for employees in the coming years. She presented the „Professions Barometer”, which is conducted by employment services at the national, voivodeship and poviat level, covering the demand for employees in professions. According to the Occupations Barometer 2023 study conducted by labor offices, at the national level, staff deficits were identified in 29 professions in the following industries: construction, production, TSL (transport, forwarding, logistics), medical and care, education, finance, catering and in uniformed services.
The meeting continued with a discussion with the participation of social partners. It was noted that the labor market should be an element driving and strengthening the competitiveness of the Polish economy.
A map should be created illustrating the structure of Polish employment in order to identify in which sectors and industries of the Polish economy funds and resources should be allocated to strengthen enterprises and employees.
Attention was also paid to the issue of remuneration and the lack of systemic solutions promoting higher and fair remuneration in Poland. The issues of flattening wages, high inflation, the wage gap and the increasing number of contracts for specific work were discussed.
The trade union side maintained the demand for at least a 20% salary increase for public sector employees in 2023 and a 24% increase in 2024.
Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.
