At the end of March 2026, labour offices registered 949,800 unemployed people — 14.5% more than a year earlier. The registered unemployment rate rose to 6.1%. At first glance, this suggests a clear deterioration, but the picture is more complex: a new Labour Market Act has been in force since 1 June 2025, changing the registration rules, while declarations of collective redundancies fell by more than 70%.
Registered unemployment reaches 6.1% as the number of unemployed rises by 14.5%. But part of the increase is the result of new legislation
The latest Statistics Poland publication shows a labour market entering a cooling phase, although the scale of this trend is difficult to measure precisely. The number of registered unemployed people increased in all voivodeships, both year on year and compared with December 2025. The unemployment rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.4 percentage points higher than at the end of 2025.
Unemployment map: from 3.9% in Greater Poland to 10.0% in Warmia and Masuria
Regional differences remain very pronounced — the highest voivodeship unemployment rate is more than 2.5 times higher than the lowest. Warmia and Masuria performs the worst at 10.0%, followed by Subcarpathia at 9.5%, while Greater Poland at 3.9% and Mazovia at 4.5% record the lowest rates. Within Mazovia itself, the contrast is stark: the Warsaw Capital Region has an unemployment rate of just 2.4%, compared with 9.4% in the Mazovian Regional Area.
The year-on-year increase was strongest in Lubusz (+27.7%) and Silesia (+24.9%), while in quarterly terms it was highest in Silesia (+11.3%) and Greater Poland (+10.1%). Importantly, the number of unemployed people rose in all 16 voivodeships, indicating a nationwide rather than local trend.
| Voivodeship | Unemployed | Rate (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Warmia and Masuria | 47,081 | 10.0 |
| Subcarpathia | 74,074 | 9.5 |
| Świętokrzyskie | 38,220 | 8.9 |
| Lublin | 64,654 | 8.5 |
| Kuyavia-Pomerania | 62,046 | 8.2 |
| West Pomerania | 48,142 | 8.2 |
| Podlaskie | 33,470 | 7.7 |
| Opole | 23,278 | 6.8 |
| Łódź | 66,232 | 6.7 |
| Lubusz | 22,148 | 6.2 |
| Lower Silesia | 69,534 | 5.8 |
| Pomerania | 53,523 | 5.7 |
| Lesser Poland | 75,199 | 5.1 |
| Silesia | 85,827 | 4.9 |
| Mazovia | 124,707 | 4.5 |
| Greater Poland | 61,693 | 3.9 |
| Poland | 949,828 | 6.1 |
Mixed signals: inflows exceed outflows, but layoffs are declining
The mechanics of the quarter explain the increase. In the first quarter of 2026, labour offices registered 319,100 newly unemployed people, while 257,100 people were deregistered. The ratio of inflows to outflows for Poland stood at 124.1, meaning that the register is growing. On the other hand, the main reason for deregistration was taking up employment: this applied to 164,700 people, or 64.1% of all deregistered individuals, compared with 54.9% a year earlier. The effectiveness of transitions from unemployment into work improved.
The strongest signal from employers is positive: at the end of March 2026, companies declared the planned dismissal of 19.6k employees, compared with 74.7k a year earlier. This represents a decline of nearly three quarters.
The number of people dismissed for reasons attributable to their employer among newly registered unemployed people was also low: 14.9k, or 4.7% of inflows. There is currently no sign of mass job cuts.
On the labour-demand side, the picture is moderate. During the quarter, employers reported 104,400 job offers, including 27.6% from the public sector. At the end of March, labour offices had 41,900 vacancies available, including 13,000 unfilled for more than 30 days. Statistically, there were 23 unemployed people per job offer.
Who remains in the registers?
The structure of registered unemployment reflects the typical tensions in the Polish labour market. A total of 824,500 people, or 86.8% of all registered unemployed people, were not entitled to unemployment benefits, compared with 84.5% a year earlier. The long-term unemployed accounted for 47.3% of those registered, while the number of people who had remained continuously unemployed for more than a year reached 360,000, or 37.9% of the total — 54,600 more than a year earlier. People without vocational qualifications accounted for 33.2% of the unemployed, while 26.9% had at most lower-secondary or primary education.
From a demographic perspective, the largest group consists of people aged 35–44, accounting for 26.0% of the total. Women represent 49.1% of the unemployed, down 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier, as the number of unemployed men increased faster (+18.3% y/y, compared with +10.7% among women). The number of registered foreign nationals is also rising, reaching 19,100 people, up 25.4% year on year.
What this means for the labour market
- The nominal increase in unemployment (+14.5% y/y, rate of 6.1%) is real, but partly reflects the legislative change introduced on 1 June 2025. Year-on-year comparisons should not be read too literally.
- The signals are mixed: the register is growing, with an inflow-to-outflow ratio of 124.1, but the transition rate into employment has improved to 64.1% of deregistrations, while declared collective redundancies have fallen by around 74%.
- The geography of unemployment remains persistent: eastern and northern Poland, including Warmia and Subcarpathia, clearly lag behind western regions such as Greater Poland and the Warsaw region, where unemployment is below 4%.
- The structural risk lies in long-term unemployment, affecting 47.3% of registered unemployed people, and the low qualification levels of a significant proportion of the group. These factors make a rapid return to employment more difficult.
Source: Statistics Poland data, publication “Registered Unemployment – Q1 2026” (Statistical Office in Bydgoszcz, June 2026); data based on reports from district labour offices submitted to the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy. Own analysis based on Statistics Poland data.
