The Sejm (lower house) passed a bill on Thursday night offering PLN 1,400 (EUR 316) monthly for three months to people who lost their jobs during the pandemic and raising the unemployment benefit by some 40 percent from September 1.
The Polish unemployment rate calculated according to Population Economic Activity Research (BAEL) in the first quarter of 2020 measured 3.1 percent, up from 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) announced on Tuesday.
Family and Labour Minister Marlena Maląg has told PAP that Poland has managed to stop a mass-scale unemployment rise, and added that 73,300 new jobless were registered in the first three weeks of May, down by 1,000 from the previous month.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday that, so far, Poland had not been hit by any sharp rise in unemployment or mass layoffs.
The Polish government is increasing the unemployment benefit to PLN 1,200 (EUR 262,9) per month and introducing three months' benefits to the tune of PLN 1,300 (EUR 284.8) per person out of work, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a Friday press conference.
In April 2020, the percentage of Poles who feared an increase in unemployment rose to 91.2 percent from 34.7 percent in April 2019, a survey by IRG SGH and the Association of Financial Companies in Poland shows.
The Polish economy will shrink by 4.3 percent in 2020 and will expand by 4.1 percent in 2021, as the HICP inflation declines to 2.5 percent in 2020 and edges up to 2.8 percent in 2021, the European Commission (EC), the EU's executive arm, said on Wednesday.
Poland's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate reached 3.0 percent in March 2020, unchanged from February, Eurostat, the EU's statistical office reported on Thursday.
Poland's unemployment fell to 5.4 percent in March 2020 from 5.5 percent in February, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) said on Friday.
The number of Poland's unemployed has so far increased by 30,000 in April, Labour Minister Marlena Maląg has told public TV broadcaster TVP Info.
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