The Ministry of the Family, Labour and Social Policy's forecasts for the registered unemployment rate in Poland at the end of July 2025 have been confirmed. This amounted to 5.4 per cent, as reported by the Central Statistical Office. The reading is 0.4 percentage points higher than in July 2024 and 0.2 percentage points higher than at the end of June 2025.

The lowest unemployment, unsurprisingly, was recorded in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship, where the registered unemployment rate at the end of July 2025 was 3.3 per cent. The worst situation in this respect was in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, where unemployment stood at 8.7 per cent.

At the end of July 2025, 830,800 unemployed people were registered with the labour offices, 65,400 more than at the end of July 2024. Compared to the previous month, the number of unemployed increased by 33,800.

What is the higher reading due to?

The increase in registered unemployment is a consequence of processes taking place in the labour market, but is also due to the entry into force on 1 June 2025 of new regulations introduced by the Labour Market and Employment Services Act.

There has been a significant decrease in the number of de-registrations of unemployed persons compared to the situation before the law entered into force, which results in a higher number of unemployed persons than before the law entered into force, even though the inflow of new unemployed persons is not very large. The lower number of de-registrations is due, among other things, to the abolition of the obligation for the unemployed to confirm their readiness to take up employment, the abolition of the sanction of de-registration from the unemployment register for the unemployed not accepting a job offer, but also to the lower number of people starting active forms of support (primarily internships, intervention and public works). In addition, some of the new registrations as unemployed may be due to a relaxation of the conditions for granting unemployment status.

Recently, we have also observed, among other things, a decrease in the number of job offers available both in labour offices and on private portals, and a pause in recruitment processes by employers.

Eurostat: unemployment in Poland still one of the lowest in the EU

Calculated according to Eurostat methodology, the unemployment rate in Poland in June 2025 was 3.5 per cent. - the reading was 0.2 percentage points higher than the month before and 0.6 percentage points higher than in June 2024. This ranks third in the European Union. Malta had the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union (2.5 per cent), followed by the Czech Republic (3 per cent). The highest unemployment in June this year was in Spain (10.4 per cent).

In April 2025, the average unemployment rate in the European Union was 5.9% and in the euro area – 6.2%