Polish employees continue to show a strong willingness to change professions. According to the latest Labour Market Barometer by Gi Group Holding, 40% of workers are currently considering reskilling or moving into a different career path.
The readiness to change professions is significantly higher among people who fear losing their jobs or are planning to change employers. In this group, 66% of respondents say they are open to retraining. This means that two-thirds of workers in a less stable or more mobile employment situation are considering not only a new workplace, but also a new profession.
Polish workers remain open to reskilling
The Gi Group Holding Labour Market Barometer shows that willingness to change professions remains high. Today, 39.8% of working Poles are considering a career change, compared with 42.6% a year earlier.
Among people concerned about losing their jobs and/or planning to leave their current employer, openness to retraining is much higher. It is declared by 66% of respondents, compared with 68.5% last year.
This means that around two-thirds of workers in a more uncertain or mobile professional situation are considering not only changing employers, but also changing the direction of their careers.
“High readiness to change professions shows that employees are increasingly thinking about their careers from a long-term perspective. They are not limiting themselves to finding a new workplace, but are willing to acquire skills that open the door to other industries and new specialisations. As technology continues to develop and employment structures change, readiness to reskill will play an increasingly important role for both employees and companies,” said Paweł Prociak, Managing Director of Wyser Executive Search.
More than age affects willingness to reskill
Women are more likely than men to consider changing professions, with 42.3% of women declaring such openness compared with 37.5% of men.
The highest willingness to change career paths is seen among people aged 25 to 44. Nearly half of respondents in this group, 48%, are considering a new profession. Among people aged 18 to 24, the figure is 44%.
Career changes are also relatively common among junior employees and younger specialists. More than 45% of working Poles in both groups said they were considering reskilling.
The workers most willing to change professions are those employed in transport and logistics, where 51.7% are considering a new career path, followed by employees in retail, at 47.3%.
“Younger generations are usually more professionally mobile and more often seek better working conditions, greater stability or jobs offering broader development opportunities. They also adapt their career plans more quickly to changing labour market needs. For many of them, retraining is a way to expand their professional opportunities and increase their range of choices,” said Michał Piernik, Business Development Manager at Grafton Recruitment.
Older and more experienced employees are the least likely to consider changing professions. Reskilling is being considered by 15.6% of respondents aged 55 and over, as well as by 34% of those aged 45 to 54, compared with 34.5% a year earlier.
Lower openness to career change is also visible among senior specialists, where the figure stands at 33%, public-sector employees at 31.7%, and people earning between PLN 7,000 and PLN 9,900 per month, at 34%.
This may suggest that the willingness to make such a major career change declines as professional experience grows and employees gain a stronger sense of stability.
Reskilling interest changes across employee groups
Compared with last year, readiness to change professions has declined noticeably in several groups.
Interest in reskilling has fallen among men, from 44% to 37.5%, among people aged 18 to 24, from 54.4% to 44%, and among those aged 55 to 67, from 27.4% to 15.6%. A decline was also recorded among production workers, where the figure dropped from 49.1% to 40.2%.
At the same time, willingness to retrain increased among people aged 25 to 44, from 46.6% to 48.4%, and among managers, from 38% to 40.6%.
A particularly significant change was seen in transport and logistics, where the share of workers considering a new profession rose from 44.6% to 51.7%.
“Employees’ openness to changing professions gives companies an opportunity to develop skills within their organisations. In many industries, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit people with experience that matches companies’ new needs. As a result, preparing existing employees for new roles is becoming more important. Reskilling makes it possible to use the potential of people who already know the organisation and the way it operates, while helping them acquire the skills needed in areas where technology and job responsibilities are changing,” said Antonio Carvelli, President of the Management Board of Gi Group.
Jobs are changing, and so are skills
Technological development is already changing the structure of employment. Demand is rising for jobs and skills related to data analysis, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital technologies, automation, robotics and the green transition.
At the same time, occupations based on routine and repetitive tasks are becoming less important.
The scale of these changes is expected to grow. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, changes in the global labour market will affect 22% of current employment by 2030. Around 170 million new jobs are expected to be created, while 92 million roles may disappear.
At the same time, 39% of key skills currently used at work are expected to change, while 59% of workers will require training involving upskilling, reskilling or both.
“The biggest challenge will not be implementing technology, but the speed at which skills can be adapted to changing market requirements. Career development will increasingly follow less predictable paths. For some people, it will mean gaining new skills in their current profession. For others, it will mean changing specialisation or moving into an entirely new field,” said Antonio Carvelli.
About the report
The Labour Market Barometer 2026 is the 20th edition of the report, which has been prepared since 2014. It was developed by experts at Gi Group Holding on the basis of research conducted by market research agency SW Research.
The survey among employers was conducted using the CATI method between February 25 and March 9, 2026. The employee survey was conducted using the CAWI method between February 23 and March 3, 2026.
The report’s partners are the Polish Entrepreneurs Federation, Polish HR Forum and Lewiatan Confederation.
Gi Group is an international employment and HR consulting company founded in Italy in 1998. It specialises in permanent and temporary recruitment, HR process outsourcing, training and human resources consulting.
The group operates in dozens of countries and serves companies across a wide range of industries. It has been present in Poland since 2007, offering recruitment, temporary work and career advisory services. Gi Group is one of the largest recruitment companies in Europe.
Grafton Recruitment is an international recruitment and HR consulting company founded in Ireland in 1982. It specialises in permanent, temporary and contract recruitment across sectors including finance, IT, sales, marketing, logistics and manufacturing.
The company operates in several European countries and has been part of Gi Group Holding since 2018. In Poland, Grafton Recruitment has operated since 1997, with offices in Warsaw, Kraków, Katowice, Poznań and Wrocław.
Wyser, part of Gi Group Holding, is a global recruitment company operating in 12 countries. Its team of experienced consultants specialises in executive search and managerial recruitment. The company supports organisations in assessing HR needs and matching candidate profiles to business expectations, while also providing career development support for managers.
