Poland’s unemployment rate fell 0.3pp y/y to 5.8% in July,  the Ministry of Development, Labour and Technology said in a preliminary estimate on August 4. 

The reading is hardly a surprise, as Poland’s labour market is improving in line with a wide economic recovery after the worst of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has passed, at least for now. 

While the number of new coronavirus infections keeps climbing, the pandemic is still very much at its long time lowest with just 164 new cases recorded as of August 4. That is growth of nearly 19% week-on-week.

There are increasing worries, however, that the pandemic will start accelerating towards the end of the month as a result of the higher transmissibility of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and Poland’s vaccination campaign being stuck. That could lead to renewed restrictions and an uptick in the unemployment rate later in the year.

The number of unemployed amounted to 975,900 at the end of July, the ministry said. That is a drop of 1.8% – or by 17,500 people – compared to the end of the preceding month. In y/y terms, that represented a fall of 5.2% or 53,600.

Month-on-month, the unemployment rate fell 0.1pp, the ministry also said. An official reading of the unemployment rate is due later this month from the statistical office GUS.

Poland's GDP contracted 2.7% in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic but is expected to bounce back at 4%-5% this year.