After two and a half years of turbulence, Poland’s IT job market is showing strong signs of recovery. According to data from JustJoin.IT, the number of job postings on the platform increased by nearly 70% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Salaries are also on the rise, although the pace is more modest than in previous years. Meanwhile, entry-level developers continue to face significant challenges finding employment.
“We observed nearly a 70% increase in the first half of the year, which came as a surprise. It was largely due to a low base—over the past two years, the market had shrunk by about 50%,” said Piotr Nowosielski, CEO of Just Join IT and Rocket Jobs, in an interview with Newseria. “These increases are mainly driven by the realization that AI isn’t yet capable of writing code independently, so there’s still a need for a large number of software developers.”
Demand is strongest for Data, Java, and JavaScript specialists (each accounting for 8–9% of all listings), as well as roles in Analytics, DevOps, and Python. However, the most dynamic growth—especially in Q2—was seen in AI/ML-related job postings.
Salaries Rebound, But Don’t Match Pandemic-Era Peaks
Over the past two years, real wages in IT dropped by as much as one-third due to downward pressure on actual hiring offers, even though published salary ranges remained largely unchanged.
“We’re now seeing a roughly 10% increase in employers’ declared salary ranges and about a 12% increase in actual accepted salaries,” Nowosielski explained. “So, salaries are slowly rising again—but from a significantly corrected and more realistic base.”
In the first half of 2025, the average salary in IT reached PLN 22,769, up 12% from PLN 20,376 a year earlier. Java developers remained among the highest-paid (up to PLN 41,000 gross on employment contracts or PLN 30,000 net on B2B contracts), followed by JavaScript developers, security specialists, IT architects, DevOps engineers, and data analysts.
However, Nowosielski believes salaries are unlikely to return to the overheated levels seen during the tech boom.
“The market was overheated due to Western tech companies spending large sums from investors and hiring developers aggressively. Top developers—those who design and implement solutions—can still earn over PLN 30,000 monthly. But rates for juniors, mids, and standard seniors have normalized and only recently started to increase in line with general wage growth across the economy.”
Junior Developers Still Face an Uphill Battle
Despite the growth in job offers, junior developers are finding it harder to enter the market. Just 6% of postings target entry-level roles, but juniors are applying at double the rate of other groups.
“There’s a visible phenomenon of ‘unemployable juniors’—people who completed bootcamps or courses but now face a drastically smaller number of job openings. Companies are no longer hiring juniors to handle basic tasks; they’re looking to scale such work using AI,” Nowosielski explained.
While overall job postings rose 68% year over year, junior-level offers increased by only about 20%.
“It’s easier than ever to learn to code thanks to tools like Cursor, Lovable, or Replit. But ironically, it’s getting harder to actually land a job,” said Nowosielski. “Employers now demand not just basic skills but also AI literacy, awareness of current trends, strong portfolios, and the ability to work efficiently under pressure.”
Experts predict that the second half of 2025 will bring even more intense competition for senior talent while raising the bar for juniors even further.
AI Also Disrupts Recruitment Processes
The rise of AI has affected not just development work but also the hiring process. Paradoxically, instead of shortening recruitment timelines, AI has doubled them.
“The average hiring process used to take about 30 days; now it’s closer to 60,” said Nowosielski. “About 20–30% of applications are now AI-generated—many of them meaningless or spammy, especially from outside Poland. That puts pressure on already downsized recruitment teams, which struggle to handle the volume. AI now needs to assist not just candidates but also recruiters.”
Hybrid Work Now More Popular Than Remote-Only
Another key trend is the shift from fully remote work to hybrid models. For the first time, hybrid work (47.1% of job listings) has surpassed remote work (46%).
“We believe this is beneficial for faster and more effective software development. In the U.S., startups that once pioneered remote-first models are now calling employees back to the office five days a week,” said Nowosielski. “In Poland, the shift is more conservative—typically three days in-office and two days remote, or four-and-one. We expect hybrid work to become the standard, with a 4:1 office-to-remote ratio.”
The rebound in Poland’s IT job market brings optimism but also new challenges, especially for junior developers and recruiters navigating an increasingly AI-influenced landscape.
