Companies are planning hiring more cautiously and less optimistically than a year ago. An increase in headcount in the coming quarter is announced by 13.7% of businesses, while 9.8% are planning reductions, according to Gi Group Holding's „Labor Market Barometer 2026”. At the same time, nearly half of organizations point to difficulties in recruiting at least one group of employees.

New jobs mainly in trade and services, cuts in the public sector

Companies are approaching workforce planning even more cautiously than a year ago. An increase in headcount in the coming quarter is announced by 13.7% of businesses, compared with 16.7% a year earlier, according to Gi Group Holding's „Labor Market Barometer 2026”. At the same time, the share expecting reductions has doubled – from 4.9% a year ago to 9.8%. This is the highest result since 2017. As in previous years, the most frequently indicated scenario remains maintaining the current level of employment, as indicated by 72.2% of businesses, although here too a slight year-on-year decline is visible.

– Companies are making staffing decisions with even greater caution, focusing on operational efficiency, cost optimization and ensuring business continuity. They are less often planning to expand teams, and more often allowing reductions or hiring freezes. In practice, this means focusing on key positions, changes in work organization and internal transfers more often than before – comments Marcos Segador Arrebola, Managing Director of Gi Group Holding.

The increase in employment is most often planned by companies in trade (19%) and services (15%), while in manufacturing it is significantly lower – 11%. In this sector, stability dominates – 78% of businesses want to maintain current staffing levels, while a relatively large proportion of companies want to implement these plans through active recruitment. This may indicate higher employee turnover and the need to regularly fill staffing gaps. The public sector stands out in this respect: only 7% of organizations plan to increase employment there, while 13% say they will make cuts.

The greatest willingness to increase employment is declared by medium-sized and large companies – 14% and 16%, respectively. In both cases, however, this means a decline compared with last year, when such plans were indicated by 20% of medium-sized and 19% of large organizations. Smaller companies, on the other hand, focus on maintaining current staffing levels and are more cautious about new recruitment.

Who do companies want to hire?

Companies planning to increase employment will focus primarily on recruiting middle-level (57.8%) and lower-level (44.8%) employees. The high increase in interest in recruiting senior management is noteworthy – over 16% of businesses have such plans, compared with 11.8% a year ago and 7% two years ago.

– The past few years have brought a clear change in the structure of recruitment. The most sought-after employees are no longer lower-level workers, but middle-level ones, which may indicate the impact of automation on operational processes and the growing importance of specialist and coordination skills. Equally important is the significant increase in demand for senior management. This shift toward roles with greater impact on strategy, business development and results shows that companies are increasingly recognizing the role of management functions as an important factor in efficiency – comments Paweł Prociak, Managing Director of Wyser Executive Search.

As shown by Gi Group Holding's „Labor Market Barometer 2026”, companies looking for middle-level employees will be mainly small (65%) and medium-sized (60%) firms, mostly from the services sector as well as transport and logistics (64% each). In turn, large entities (58%) plan to hire for lower-level positions, mainly in the public sector (53%) and transport and logistics (50%). Medium-sized (17%) and small firms (16%) most often intend to look for management staff, and by industry – trade (24%) and transport and logistics (19%).

– As new technologies are implemented, the competency profile of employees changes, and the ability to combine digital skills with analytical and business thinking gains importance. Companies are increasingly looking for people who can work with data, quickly learn new tools and effectively use technology to improve processes. At the same time, the importance of soft skills is growing, such as flexibility, communication skills, independence and a willingness to develop – explains Ewa Michalska, Operations Director of Grafton Recruitment.

Finding candidates is still not easy

Although companies' readiness to increase employment remains limited, 45.7% of companies admit that in recent months they have had difficulties recruiting at least one group of employees. This shows that problems with attracting candidates still affect a significant part of the market, although their scale is slightly smaller than a year earlier.

Employers most often point to difficulties in attracting qualified senior staff (as much as 14.3%), slightly less often the problem concerns lower-level employees and recruitment at all job levels (in both cases over 12% of responses). One in ten companies has difficulty finding middle-level employees.

Medium-sized companies operating in trade are mainly facing recruitment challenges. Small companies relatively more often point to problems with attracting senior staff, while large organizations – lower-level employees.

The most frequently cited reason for the difficulties is candidates' excessively high salary expectations – more than 50% of surveyed companies having trouble finding employees mention them. Next come mismatched or insufficient candidate skills (44.6%), dropouts during the recruitment process (35.2%) and a lack of candidates (33.5%).

– Data and market observations show that difficulties related to wage pressure, skills mismatches and dropping out of recruitment have clearly intensified over the past year. As a result, the process of acquiring employees is more demanding and less predictable than it was a year ago – explains Grzegorz Gojny, Operations Director of Gi Group.

Candidates' excessively high salary expectations are a challenge for all types of companies, regardless of size, although large and medium-sized enterprises as well as manufacturing companies signal this factor slightly more often (58%). The same is true of skills mismatches, which affect entities of various sizes and almost all industries. Only the public sector indicates it less often (35%). Candidate dropouts during the recruitment process are less of an issue for large companies, and are mentioned more often by the services and transport-logistics sectors. Medium-sized entities (40%) and the public sector (43%) are mainly affected by candidate shortages. Inconvenient location and difficult working conditions are more often a problem for small companies, especially service and trade businesses. Unsatisfactory work arrangements, on the other hand, are more often reported by the largest enterprises and the transport-logistics sector.

– Recruitment increasingly serves the function of precisely supplementing competency resources. Under conditions of technological change, cost pressure and uncertainty in the business environment, the strategic approach to team building and investment in employee development is gaining importance. These areas are becoming an important factor in companies' competitiveness – sums up Grzegorz Gojny, Operations Director of Gi Group.

Report link: https://www.gigroupholding.com/polska/insights/barometr-rynku-pracy-2026/?utm_source=media&utm_medium=komunikat&utm_campaign=barometr_20

About the report:

„Labor Market Barometer 2026” is already the 20th edition of the report prepared since 2014. It was developed by experts from Gi Group Holding based on research conducted by the Market and Public Opinion Research Agency SW Research on behalf of Gi Group Holding. The survey among employers was carried out using the CATI method (25.02–09.03.2026), and among employees using the CAWI method (23.02–03.03.2026). The report partners are: the Polish Entrepreneurs Federation, the Polish HR Forum and the Lewiatan Confederation.