Almost half of Poles expect job loss, significant salary cut: poll

As many as 47 percent of Poles believe that the effects of the coronavirus pandemic will cause them or their relatives to lose their jobs and at least 51 percent of Poles believe that the effects of the pandemic will significantly reduce their income, according to a survey conducted by the Lewiatan Confederation. The results published on April 6 show that 68 percent of Poles assess the government’s actions as insufficient, while 70 percent of Poles assess positively the involvement of their employer in maintaining jobs.

“The results of the study are disturbing but they are not surprising. They show that Poles are very aware that the second most important danger arising from the Covid-19 [the disease caused by the coronavirus] epidemic is, along with health threats, its negative impact on the economy,” said Grzegorz Baczewski, director-general of Lewiatan Confederation, a Polish business organization “representing the interests of employers in Poland and the European Union” as they state on their website.

“The next weeks of downtime in the economy, in the absence of real help from the state, can cause drastic social consequences. If people stop believing in any real prospect of improvement, they will begin to drastically reduce expenses, which will affect sales volumes and will also plunge companies that they are still doing well. This may mean another wave of layoffs and acceleration of unemployment growth” he added.

The survey shows that people aged 30-39 are most afraid of losing their jobs, more often such fear is felt by city residents. People within ages 40-59 have the biggest fear of falling income.

The study was conducted – at the request of the Lewiatan Confederation – by the Institute of Public Affairs Research, using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing method, on a representative sample of 1,002 adult residents of Poland.

(ISBnews)