Eurostat: Poland’s unemployment rates still low despite COVID-19

The recent figures released by Eurostat show that Poland recorded the lowest unemployment rate (3.1 per cent) out of all European Union countries in the first two months of 2021. Czech Republic and the Netherlands were second and third in the table, with unemployment rates of 3.2 and 3.6 per cent, respectively. The highest jobless rates in the EU were recorded in Greece (16.2 per cent) and Spain (16 per cent).

It is estimated that nearly 16 million of men and women living in the EU were unemployed in February 2021, which makes up for 7.5 per cent of the EU labour force (up from 6.5 per cent in February 2020). In Poland, the unemployment rate remained unchanged compared to the same period last year.

However, it is worth taking a closer look at the figures to note it is young people who have been hit hardest by the pandemic - in 2020, the unemployment rate for people under 25 in Poland was 9.6 per cent. This year, it has increased by over 5 percentage points - to 14.8 per cent. According to Eurostat, the youth unemployment rate in the EU stood at 17.2 per cent in February 2021. The lowest number of jobless people aged 18-25 was recorded in Germany (6.1 per cent), the highest - in Spain (39.6 per cent) and Italy (31.6 per cent).

For more details, read the Eurostat report.

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