After years of employer dominance, Poland’s marketing labour market is beginning to shift in favour of candidates. The number of job vacancies is expected to reach around 9,000 in 2026, representing a year-on-year increase of 28%.
Vacancies are growing faster than applications, while salaries are increasing in real terms for the first time since the pandemic. The lower median salary range rose by 11.4%.
At the same time, data from rocketjobs.pl show that the market is splitting into two distinct segments. Candidates are applying in large numbers for content-related roles, while companies are actively seeking specialists in performance marketing and analytics.
This mismatch has become one of the biggest strategic challenges facing Poland’s marketing industry.
The latest rocketjobs.pl report, Recruitment Trends in the Marketing Sector, analyses job advertisements, applications and salaries in marketing based on data from 2021 to 2026.
WPP Media is the report’s main partner, while Marketer+ is its expert content partner.
The Market Has Recovered and Competition Has Eased
The number of marketing job advertisements increased from 4,658 in 2021 to 7,004 in 2025, representing growth of around 50% over five years.
Following a rapid increase in 2021 and 2022, the market experienced a short correction in 2023 before gradually rebuilding momentum in subsequent years.
A significant acceleration occurred at the beginning of 2026. March and April brought around 40% more vacancies than in the same period a year earlier.
The full-year forecast points to approximately 9,000 job advertisements, which would represent a 28% year-on-year increase and the strongest result since the data series began.
The most important change, however, is not the number of vacancies itself, but the relationship between demand and supply.
For the first time since the beginning of the analysis, the number of vacancies is rising faster than the number of applications. As a result, competition for each position has eased considerably.
The market has therefore begun to shift slightly in favour of candidates.
Growth is being supported by a broader recovery across the Polish labour market. According to Hays research, 84% of companies plan to recruit employees in 2026, while 47% expect their overall headcount to increase.
Poland’s macroeconomic situation is also supportive, with the country continuing to record one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Union.
The Market’s Biggest Mismatch
A comparison of the positions most frequently chosen by candidates with those most actively advertised by employers reveals two very different pictures of the same industry.
There are, however, several areas of overlap.
Three positions appear prominently on both lists. Social Media Specialist ranks first among both candidates and employers. Social Media Manager also places highly, while Marketing Specialist appears in the middle of both rankings.
Social media is therefore the area in which candidate interest most closely matches employer demand. It is the only relatively balanced segment of the market.
Beyond this area, however, candidates and employers appear to operate in two separate worlds.
Candidates primarily target content-related roles. Copywriter, Content Creator and Content Specialist account for three of the six most frequently selected positions.
These jobs are associated with creativity, have an attractive professional image and are often perceived as having a relatively low entry barrier.
Companies, meanwhile, are looking for people capable of delivering measurable business results.
The roles most in demand include Account Manager, Marketing Manager and Performance Marketing Specialist. None of these positions appears among the six most popular choices made by candidates.
In simple terms, candidates want to create content, while companies are looking for professionals responsible for business results, customer relationships and management.
The scale of the shortage is clearly visible in the data. In the Performance Marketing and SEM category, a senior-level job advertisement receives an average of just 29 applications. This is the lowest figure in the entire analysis apart from SEO roles.
Content-related positions, by comparison, attract hundreds of applications.
“From an HR perspective, we can see that marketing is entering a very interesting phase of transformation. On the one hand, there is a clear recovery in recruitment activity and a growing number of job offers. On the other, the gap between the skills candidates want to develop and those organisations actually need is becoming increasingly visible,” said Paulina Świątkiewicz, HR Business Partner at rocketjobs.pl and justjoin.it.
“What is particularly interesting is that candidate interest remains focused on content and social media roles, while companies increasingly seek specialists in performance marketing, marketing automation, analytics and marketing project management.
“This shows that marketing experience alone is no longer sufficient. Business, analytical and technological skills are becoming increasingly valuable,” she added.
A More Mature Market and Real Salary Growth
The report shows that the profile of applicants has changed permanently from predominantly junior to mid- and senior-level.
Mid-level specialists have represented the largest group of applicants since 2022. In 2025, they submitted more than 306,000 applications.
The senior segment, however, is growing at the fastest pace.
During the first half of 2026, experienced specialists submitted 50,000 applications. This represented 69% of the total volume recorded during the whole of 2025, achieved in just six months.
The typical applicant is therefore significantly more experienced than five years ago. This is changing the rules of the game for both recruiters and candidates competing for positions in the sector.
“This shift towards experienced candidates creates a completely new challenge for us: how to use this knowledge effectively and create an engaging environment for these professionals,” said Joanna Smolińska, Chief People Officer for Central and South-Eastern Europe at WPP Media.
“At WPP Media, we can see that the traditional distinction between ‘creative’ and ‘analytical’ positions is becoming obsolete. Today’s senior specialist needs hybrid skills that combine strategic thinking with operational maturity.
“We expect a partnership-based approach. A senior specialist in today’s market is not merely someone who carries out tasks, but a business partner who can translate media activities into genuine improvements in our clients’ performance.
“I am pleased that the market is becoming increasingly transparent. Openness and clear rules, reflected in the growing number of advertisements that disclose employment conditions, provide an excellent foundation for building trust and a healthy workplace culture from the first contact with a candidate,” Smolińska added.
After five years in which inflation eroded nominal pay increases, the first half of 2026 also brought the first real increase in purchasing power.
In the first quarter, the lower median salary range increased by 11.4% in real terms, while the upper median rose by 6%.
Salary transparency is also increasing. During the first months of the year, 53.6% of marketing job advertisements included salary ranges, marking a record high.
The trend has been supported, among other factors, by the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
The narrowing of salary ranges mainly results from lower salary levels rising faster than higher ones.
Inflation, increases in the statutory minimum wage and pay pressure affecting junior and mid-level positions all contributed to this trend.
At the same time, companies are becoming more cautious when offering the highest salaries. They increasingly expect senior employees not only to have extensive experience, but also to demonstrate that their work can generate higher revenue, reduce costs or improve efficiency.
“The flattening of salary ranges is primarily the result of lower rates increasing faster than upper rates. Inflation, the rising minimum wage and salary pressure in junior and mid-level positions have all played a role,” said Paweł Koziara, Marketing and Sales Director at Marketer+ and E-commerce w Praktyce.
“At the same time, companies are approaching the highest salaries more cautiously. They increasingly expect a senior employee not only to be an experienced specialist, but also to show how their work contributes to revenue growth, cost savings or higher efficiency,” he added.
Hybrid Work, Warsaw and Remote Roles Reshape the Market
The report also shows how the way marketing professionals work, and where they work, has changed over the past five years.
The market remains heavily concentrated in Warsaw. Poland’s capital has several times more job offers than Kraków and the group consisting of Wrocław, the Tricity and Poznań.
Its advantage is not declining. Instead, it is continuing to increase.
For employers outside Warsaw, attracting talent increasingly requires flexibility, as the local candidate pool in other cities is considerably smaller than in the capital.
Flexibility is also necessary because of the dominant working model.
Hybrid work has become the market standard. There were 3,800 hybrid job advertisements in 2025, and the model has replaced office-based work as the default option within only a few years.
Contrary to widespread claims about the end of remote work, fully remote roles have not disappeared. They remain a stable minority, accounting for approximately 20% of the market.
The message for employers is clear: failing to offer a hybrid option may significantly reduce the available candidate pool, particularly when recruiting the most sought-after specialists.
All these trends lead to a single conclusion.
Marketing is entering a phase in which competitive advantage in the labour market will be determined not merely by the number of job advertisements or salary levels, but by the ability to adapt to new skills, technologies and organisational realities.
Companies that invest today in talent development and flexible forms of cooperation will be best prepared for the next stage of the industry’s transformation.
About the Report
The report Recruitment Trends in the Marketing Sector was prepared using recruitment data from rocketjobs.pl.
It covers the full years from 2021 to 2025 and the first half of 2026.
The analysis examines changes in the number of job advertisements, the structure of professional categories and experience levels, application volumes, median salary ranges, working models and the concentration of vacancies in Poland’s largest cities.
Source: https://ceo.com.pl/rynek-pracy-w-marketingu-odbija-liczba-ofert-moze-wzrosnac-o-28-82756
