The labour market in the first quarter of 2026 is changing not only in quantitative terms, but above all in qualitative ones. In IT, more than half of all job offers are now aimed at senior-level professionals, while hybrid and remote work together account for 92% of postings, meaning flexibility remains a prerequisite in the race for talent. Demand is strongest for data specialists, Java developers and project management professionals.
In other sectors, office-based work still prevails, while recruitment is being driven mainly by sales, marketing and customer service. A shared challenge across both segments remains pay transparency. The first full quarter after the introduction of the Pay Transparency Directive did not bring the expected breakthrough. These are the key findings of the Labour Market Barometer Q1 2026, a cyclical analysis prepared by justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl.
A New Recruitment Profile: Experience Is Worth Its Weight in Gold
Data from the first quarter of 2026 shows that the labour market is undergoing structural change. On justjoin.it, the share of job offers aimed at senior professionals rose from 50% to 55%, at the expense of mid-level roles, which fell from 42% to 38%, and junior roles, which declined from 6% to 5%. Today, IT companies are primarily looking for specialists capable of delivering business value quickly. This shift is also confirmed by candidates themselves. On justjoin.it, the share of applications for senior positions increased from 36% to 41%, while applications for mid-level roles fell from 48% to 42%. Senior professionals in IT are increasingly active in seeking new challenges, and the market is clearly rewarding narrow specialisations and proven expertise.
On rocketjobs.pl, the demand structure remains much more stable. Mid-level roles still dominate, accounting for 60% of job offers, while the shares of the other segments have changed only marginally. Candidates themselves confirm this balance, with mid-level applications continuing to represent 59% of the total. This stems from the fact that career paths outside the technology sector are more linear, and the boundaries between experience levels are more clearly defined.
Across both markets, however, the same pattern is visible: companies need more experienced specialists than are currently available, while junior and mid-level candidates are competing for a limited number of roles at their own level. In IT, this imbalance is particularly clear. Every second employer is looking for a senior professional, yet only four out of ten applicants match that profile.
This imbalance may drive further wage growth in the senior segment in the coming quarters and extend recruitment times for key positions.
Work Model: IT Chooses Flexibility, Other Sectors Choose Presence
The way work is performed remains one of the key differentiators of job offers and an important factor in their attractiveness. On justjoin.it in Q1 2026, hybrid jobs continued to dominate at 48%, with remote roles accounting for 44%. Changes compared with the previous year were limited, with the share of remote work slipping slightly from 47% to 44% while hybrid work remained at a high level. This means that in IT, flexible work models have already become a stable market standard.
The situation looks different on rocketjobs.pl, where office-based roles still dominate at 52%, although their share has fallen slightly compared with 2025, when it stood at 55%. At the same time, the importance of mobile work increased significantly, from 5% to 11%, reflecting the nature of operational and sales roles typical of non-technology sectors.
“In recent years, the way professional duties are performed has ceased to be an extra benefit and has instead become a key element of employment strategy, with a real impact on the competitiveness of job offers and access to talent. In the IT market, we are seeing stabilisation of trends. Hybrid and remote work continue to dominate, and organisations have developed a target work model that balances candidate expectations with team efficiency. Outside IT, office-based work still dominates, although its share is gradually declining, while the importance of mobile work is growing. From an HR perspective, there is no universal work model. The key is to align it with the role and market expectations, because today it is one of the main factors determining recruitment effectiveness,” comments Paulina Świątkiewicz, HR Business Partner at justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl.
Pay Transparency: New Rules, Old Habits
The first quarter of 2026 was also the first full quarter after the amendment to the Labour Code came into force on 24 December 2025, implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The data, however, does not indicate any breakthrough. On justjoin.it, the share of job offers including salary ranges fell from 58.4% to 54.4%, while rocketjobs.pl recorded only a symbolic increase, from 34.4% to 35.4%. Pay transparency in IT remains clearly higher than in other sectors, but it is no longer growing. Across the broader market, it still has not become standard practice.
“After a period of rising pressure for pay transparency, it is clear that the market is approaching this issue more cautiously than one might have expected. Despite the introduction of the EU directive on pay transparency, the data does not show any significant breakthrough. In the IT sector, the decline in the share of offers with salary ranges suggests greater caution among companies seeking to preserve negotiation flexibility. Outside IT, transparency still is not the norm, despite a symbolic year-on-year increase. What we are seeing is more of a slowdown than an acceleration of the trend. Real change will most likely come only with the full implementation and enforcement of the regulations, not at the stage of announcing them,” adds Paulina Świątkiewicz.
Data, Sales and AI: Where the Market Is Looking for People
In IT, recruitment was driven primarily by data-related and programming specialisations. The Data category retained its leading position with 2,676 job offers, followed closely by Java with 2,547. The biggest jump was recorded by Project Management, which moved from fifth to third place in the ranking with 2,172 offers. JavaScript and DevOps, meanwhile, dropped out of the top tier, indicating a clear shift in the demand structure within the IT market itself.
On rocketjobs.pl, the strongest demand was by far for roles in sales, with 14,945 offers, and marketing, with 9,209. Among the fastest-growing categories were Health and Beauty and Customer Service, both of which entered the top five for the first time.
The AI/ML category on justjoin.it deserves particular attention. In Q1 2026, it recorded more than a threefold increase in the number of job postings, rising from 432 to 1,326, while the number of incoming CVs climbed by 156%. Importantly, the structure of applicants shifted decisively towards more experienced professionals. The share of senior candidates rose from 28% to 43%, while the share of juniors fell from 27% to 16%. The AI/ML market is not only growing dynamically, but is also clearly maturing, driven by increasingly experienced specialists.
“The dominance of Sales and Marketing among the most popular categories on rocketjobs.pl is one of the strongest signals of the shift we are observing in the Polish labour market in Q1 2026. The sharp rise in the number of job postings in these areas shows that companies are placing a strong emphasis on revenue generation. In a context of rising operating costs, ‘frontline’ departments are receiving the largest recruitment budgets. At the same time, on justjoin.it, the doubling of offers in the Data category and the rise of Project Management to third place suggest that the digital economy is not slowing down. It is simply maturing and looking not only for programmers, but also for architects of processes and business decisions,” says Przemysław Depka Prondziński, Head of Customer Success at justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl.
More Job Postings
In terms of the number of job advertisements, the first quarter of 2026 brought a clear rebound on both portals. On justjoin.it, the number of published offers increased by 116% year on year, from 12,677 to 27,375. Rocketjobs.pl recorded an increase from 17,282 to 29,761 offers, or 72%. These results reflect both positive macroeconomic signals and growing demand for specialists, as well as an expanding base of employers using both services. In percentage terms, justjoin.it grew faster, while rocketjobs.pl ended the quarter with a slightly larger overall number of postings.
Greater Flexibility in Employment Forms
Growing flexibility is visible not only in work models, but also in forms of employment. On justjoin.it, B2B contracts remain dominant, accounting for 58% of job offers. However, the share of traditional employment contracts fell from 35% to 28%, while the number of postings allowing any form of cooperation rose sharply from 2% to 12%. On rocketjobs.pl, employment contracts remain the most popular form at 50%, but here too their share is declining in favour of civil-law contracts and offers open to various employment models.
At the same time, there has been a broader increase in the share of part-time roles, from 6% to 9%, and freelance positions, from 1% to 2%, confirming that the wider labour market is becoming more open to alternative forms of employment. The common direction of change is clear: both markets are moving towards greater flexibility in shaping employer-candidate relationships.
Warsaw Remains the Leader, but the Market Is Decentralising
Warsaw remains the largest recruitment market on both portals, accounting for 29% of IT offers and 25% in other sectors. On justjoin.it, Kraków, Wrocław and the Tri-City area also play an important role, confirming the concentration of the IT sector in the country’s main technology hubs. On rocketjobs.pl, the distribution of job offers is more dispersed. The share of smaller cities rose from 28% to 31%, indicating ongoing decentralisation of the labour market outside the IT sector.
“The Q1 2026 Barometer shows a labour market that is clearly accelerating, but not returning to its old rules. Companies are recruiting differently, more selectively, with a stronger emphasis on experience and specific skills. In IT, flexibility and specialisation are the currency with which employers compete for talent. Outside technology, the market is expanding broadly, driven by sales, marketing and services, but both work models and approaches to pay transparency are changing much more slowly. The first months of the pay transparency directive have not delivered a breakthrough. This is a signal that regulation alone is not enough without a change in recruitment culture. In the coming months, the key issue for companies will not only be how many vacancies they open, but also how quickly they adapt their offers to the rising expectations of candidates,” concludes Piotr Nowosielski, CEO of justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl.
Methodology
The Labour Market Barometer Q1 2026 was prepared on the basis of an analysis of job advertisements and candidate applications on justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl, which together attracted more than 4.2 million visitors in the first quarter of 2026. Data for Q1 2026 was compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.
