In May 2026, average employment in the enterprise sector in the Łódź region fell by 3.0% year on year, while the registered unemployment rate increased to 5.8%, up 0.9 percentage points from a year earlier. At the same time, average gross wages rose by 6.3% year on year, although they were lower than in April on a monthly basis.
Employment: annual decline, mixed performance across sectors
Average employment in the enterprise sector in Łódź stood at 127.5 thousand full-time equivalents in May 2026. This was 0.1 thousand people, or 0.1%, lower than in April 2026, and 3.9 thousand people, or 3.0%, lower than in May 2025.
In comparison with April 2026, average employment declined in accommodation and food service activities (by 0.5%), arts, entertainment and recreation (by 0.4%), trade; repair of motor vehicles (by 0.3%), transportation and storage (by 0.3%), information and communication (by 0.2%), real estate activities (by 0.1%) and industry (by 0.1%). Average employment increased in construction (by 0.6%), administrative and support service activities (by 0.3%) and professional, scientific and technical activities (by 0.1%).
On an annual basis, average employment fell in industry (by 10.2%), real estate activities (by 7.6%), administrative and support service activities (by 2.6%), information and communication (by 1.9%), and professional, scientific and technical activities (by 1.4%). It increased in transportation and storage (by 5.1%), accommodation and food service activities (by 3.6%), arts, entertainment and recreation (by 2.2%), construction (by 2.1%), and trade; repair of motor vehicles (by 0.1%).
Trade; repair of motor vehicles (30.9%) and industry (27.4%) account for the largest shares of employment, together representing more than 58% of all employees in Łódź’s enterprise sector. Industry also recorded the steepest year-on-year decline in employment among all sectors.
Registered unemployment: annual increase, month-to-month stability
At the end of May 2026, the number of registered unemployed people in Łódź totalled 19,711. This was 129 people, or 0.7%, lower than at the end of April 2026, but 3,421 people, or 21.0%, higher than in the corresponding period of 2025.
The number of registered unemployed women was 8,820, accounting for 44.7% of all unemployed people in Łódź (44.6% a month earlier and 46.3% a year earlier) and 29.3% of unemployed women in the Łódź Voivodeship. Compared with April 2026, the number of unemployed women fell by 27 people (0.3%), while compared with May 2025 it rose by 1,280 people (17.0%).
The registered unemployment rate in Łódź was 5.8%, unchanged from the previous month, compared with 4.9% a year earlier. For comparison, the rate in the Łódź Voivodeship stood at 6.5% (6.6% a month earlier and 5.6% a year earlier), while the national rate was 5.9% (6.0% a month earlier and 5.1% a year earlier).
In May 2026, 1,494 unemployed people were registered at labour offices (compared with 1,511 in April 2026 and 1,638 in May 2025). People registered as unemployed in Łódź accounted for 29.0% of all registered unemployed people in the voivodeship. The number of first-time registrants was 447 (419 a month earlier), representing 29.9% of all unemployed people registered in May 2026 and 30.5% of first-time registrants in the voivodeship. The share of people laid off for reasons attributable to their workplace among those registered as unemployed in May 2026 was 5.8% (6.2% in the Łódź Voivodeship), compared with 5.4% a month earlier and 17.5% a year earlier.
In May 2026, 1,623 people were removed from the unemployment register (1,495 in April 2026 and 1,649 in May 2025), representing 26.8% of all removals from the register in the Łódź Voivodeship. Of those removed, 1,131 took up employment. In addition, 90 people lost unemployed status because they had not maintained contact with the labour office for at least 90 days. Other reasons for removal included starting training or an internship, as well as acquiring pension, disability pension, benefit or pre-retirement benefit entitlements.
Some 17,577 people, or 89.2% of all registered unemployed people, were not entitled to unemployment benefit (14,130 people, or 86.7%, a year earlier), while 2,134 unemployed people were entitled to benefit.
In May 2026, 267 job offers were reported to labour offices, accounting for 14.9% of all offers in the Łódź Voivodeship. At month-end, the offices had vacancies available for 147 people. At the end of May 2026, there were 134 registered unemployed people per job offer (67 a month earlier); in the Łódź Voivodeship, the figure was 38 people (36 a month earlier).
Wages: annual increase, month-to-month decline
The average monthly gross wage in Łódź’s enterprise sector was PLN 8,640.88 in May 2026. It was 2.5% lower than in April 2026, but 6.3% higher than in the corresponding period of 2025.
Compared with April 2026, average gross wages declined in professional, scientific and technical activities (by 10.9%), industry (by 4.1%), accommodation and food service activities (by 3.2%), administrative and support service activities (by 2.2%), real estate activities (by 1.4%), information and communication (by 0.6%), trade; repair of motor vehicles (by 0.5%), construction (by 0.2%), and arts, entertainment and recreation (by 0.1%). Average gross wages increased only in transportation and storage (by 3.4%).
Compared with May 2025, average gross wages increased in all analysed sectors: arts, entertainment and recreation (by 8.5%), real estate activities (by 8.2%), trade; repair of motor vehicles (by 7.4%), industry (by 7.0%), construction (by 5.7%), information and communication (by 5.7%), transportation and storage (by 5.7%), administrative and support service activities (by 4.3%), accommodation and food service activities (by 3.6%), and professional, scientific and technical activities (by 3.5%).
The largest positive deviation from the average wage in Łódź’s enterprise sector was recorded in information and communication (+52.6%), while the largest negative deviation was seen in accommodation and food service activities (-30.1%).
Compared with other large cities, the average gross wage in Łódź (PLN 8,640.88) remained lower than in Warsaw (PLN 11,204.68), Kraków (PLN 11,469.00) and Poznań (PLN 10,952.17), while being broadly comparable with Bydgoszcz (PLN 8,890.32) and Białystok (PLN 7,862.01).
Data source: Statistical Office in Łódź, “Statistics of Łódź 5/2026”, data as of 24 June 2026. Own analysis based on Statistics Poland data.
