Apart from Minister Rafalska, the gala was also participated in by, among others, the Vice Ministers of Family, Stanisław Szwed and Kazimierz Kuberski, the Head of the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, Jacek Sasin and persons from the Public Employment Services.

Minister Elżbieta Rafalska in her speech reminded that exactly 100 years ago, pursuant to the decree of the Chief of State, Józef Piłsudski of 27 January 1919, state employment agency and emigrants care offices were appointed. “There are not many institutions with such a long history of operations. Employment offices face completely new challenges now” – said the Minister.

She pointed out that in 1992, 307 unemployed persons fall on one employee of the poviat employment office. At the end of 2017 this number decreased to 56 persons. “This data show a gap, a deep difference regarding where we are today” – she underlined.

According to the data quoted by the Minister of Family there are 340 poviat and 16 voivodeship employment offices in Poland. In total, they employ over 22 thousand persons.

“Today, the employment services face new challenges of social, economic and technological character. The society becomes increasingly mobile. I think that higher mobility of Poles constitutes a crucial feature of solving employment problems” – underlined Minister Rafalska.

During the gala, the Minister, Elżbieta Rafalska together with the Vice Minister, Stanisław Szwed presented statuettes to the most distinguished poviat employment office and the Primus in Agendo medal.

The conference was also accompanied with the exhibition entitled “A centenary of Public Employment Services” and exposition of original archival materials from the interwar period.

At the press briefing preceding the gala, Minister Rafalska drew attention to the fact that the situation in the labour market has been the best since the transformation period. She reminded that at the end of 2018 the unemployment amounted to 5.9 percent and the number of the unemployed was below 1 million. We also have the largest number of the employed – over 16.6 million persons.