Vacancies reported to Poland’s public employment offices fell 9.7% year on year in the third quarter of 2026, while the average job search had lengthened to 9.2 months in the second quarter. An analysis by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) suggests stronger economic activity has yet to produce a broader recovery in demand for workers.
By Adam Ujazdowski. Polish original published on 12 November 2026 at 11:21:18 UTC.
Employment offices receive 12,200 fewer vacancies
Employers reported 114,100 vacancies to public employment offices in Q3 2026, down from 126,300 a year earlier. The decline of 12,200, or 9.7%, points to weaker labour demand, although other measures show some improvement.
Online recruitment advertising has begun to grow again but remains below levels recorded several years ago. Grant Thornton and Element counted 269,400 new advertisements on Poland’s 50 largest recruitment websites in September 2026. That was 2% more than a year earlier, marking a fourth consecutive month of annual growth.
Despite that recovery, online advertisements were 9.3% below their September 2019 level and about 14% below 2022. Sector trends also differed: healthcare vacancies rose 14% year on year, while advertisements for manual workers fell 3%.
Public employment office and online portal figures cover different parts of the market and should not be added together or interpreted as a count of newly created jobs. A single position may be advertised in several places, and some recruitment replaces departing employees rather than expanding headcount.
Change: −9.7%. Source: Polish Economic Institute (PIE), Economic Weekly 45/2026.
The average job search exceeds nine months
Weaker demand for workers is also reflected in unemployment data. Statistics Poland’s Labour Force Survey, known domestically as BAEL, put the average time spent looking for work at 9.2 months in Q2 2026, up from 7.8 months a year earlier. The increase was 1.4 months, or about 18%.
The share of unemployed people who had been searching for at least 13 months rose from 15.9% in Q2 2025 to 21.8% a year later, an increase of 5.9 percentage points. The survey unemployment rate rose from 2.8% to 3.2% over the same period. Although still relatively low, it coincides with longer searches for people who have lost jobs or are trying to return to work.
GDP growth has yet to bring a hiring rebound
Poland’s GDP grew 4.1% year on year in Q2 2026, but recruitment has not yet shown a clear revival. Average employment in the corporate sector was 1% lower in January–September than in the same period of 2025.
Higher production and sales do not necessarily lead immediately to additional hiring. Companies can expand using existing staff, improving work organisation or raising productivity. Labour costs and uncertainty over future orders may also lead them to postpone creating positions until the economic recovery looks more durable.
The two statistical measures also have different coverage. GDP captures the whole economy, while average corporate-sector employment covers a defined group of businesses; they do not measure the same phenomenon.
Most companies plan to hold staffing steady
Business surveys reinforce the picture of cautious hiring. In PIE’s October Monthly Business Climate Index survey, 82% of companies planned no change in employee numbers, while 9% expected to cut staff. Maintaining existing headcount was therefore the prevailing approach, rather than widespread redundancies.
The Quick Monitoring survey by Narodowy Bank Polski (NBP), Poland’s central bank, points in a similar direction. Its quarterly employment expectations indicator fell to 13.5 percentage points for Q4 2026, the lowest level since Q1 2021.
