At the end of March 2026, 1.4769 million people in Poland were working exclusively under mandate contracts and related civil-law agreements, according to Statistics Poland. That was 82,000 more than a year earlier, an increase of 5.9%. Compared with the end of December 2025, however, the number fell by 20,900.
The statistic is narrower than the total number of people who have any civil-law contract. It covers people for whom this type of agreement was the only form of work included in the GUS study. Students under 26 and people simultaneously classified as employed in the national economy are among the groups excluded.
Growth over the year, but a slight decline since December
On 31 March 2026, GUS counted exactly 1,476,887 people working exclusively under mandate contracts and similar agreements. The year-on-year increase was substantial, but the quarterly picture was different: compared with 31 December 2025, the total was down 1.4%.
Relative to March 2024, the number was 11.7% higher. The strongest increase came during 2025, with the index peaking in September before easing slightly at the end of the year and again in the first quarter of 2026.
Almost one in three are foreign workers
Foreign nationals accounted for 437,651 people, or around 29.6% of the group. That highlights how closely this segment of the labour market is connected with migration, staffing agencies, outsourcing and industries that rely heavily on flexible work arrangements.
The data do not show how many hours each person worked or how long the contract lasted. They describe the number of people who were working exclusively in this form on the last day of the month.
Administrative and support services lead
Where do people working exclusively on civil-law contracts work?
Number of people, March 2026
Administrative and support services — 312,600
Healthcare and social work — 154,600
Manufacturing — 151,700
Wholesale and retail trade — 147,400
Transport and storage — 118,400
Source: Poland Insight based on Statistics Poland data.
Administrative and support services accounted for 21.2% of the total. Healthcare and social assistance represented 10.5%, manufacturing 10.3%, trade 10.0%, transport and storage 8.0%, and construction 7.8%.
Women and men are almost evenly represented overall
Men made up 51.5% of the total and women 48.5%, but the overall balance hides very large sector differences. Women accounted for more than 85% of people working exclusively on such contracts in healthcare and social work, while in construction their share was below 12%.
More than 92% of the group worked for private-sector entities. Regionally, Mazowieckie had the largest number, with around 273,000 residents working exclusively on these contracts, followed by Śląskie, Dolnośląskie and Wielkopolskie.
What the data say about Poland’s labour market
The figures show that civil-law work is not a marginal phenomenon. Even under GUS’s relatively narrow definition, almost 1.48 million people relied exclusively on this form of work at the end of March. It is also spread across a wide range of industries rather than concentrated in one niche.
The large share of foreign workers means that migration policy and changes in rules for employing non-Polish citizens can have a direct effect on this part of the labour market. At the same time, the data remain important to the wider debate about the balance between flexibility for companies and workers and the employment rights and stability associated with standard employment contracts.
Source: Statistics Poland (GUS), “Persons performing work exclusively on the basis of civil-law contracts in Poland in March 2026”.
