Statistics Poland has published the first dataset of this level of detail on the occupations people actually perform in Poland — not the professions they declare or trained for, but those reported in social-insurance records. Rather than relying on data collected through the once-in-a-decade Population Census, the study uses administrative registers. This made it possible to analyse 443 four-digit occupational codes by gender, age and place of residence. The data paint a picture of a labour market deeply divided by gender, ageing in healthcare, reliant on Ukrainian workers in transport and increasingly exposed to automation in office-based occupations.
Four Occupations That Hold the Labour Market Together
The most common occupation in Poland is that of shop assistant or cashier, accounting for 5.3% of all employed people. The average age in this occupation is 40, and women account for 83.7% of workers.
Truck drivers rank second, representing 3.0% of employment. Their average age is 44, while women account for just 1.3% of the profession. Warehouse workers and related occupations account for 2.6% of employment, with an average age of 39 and a female share of 23.8%. Primary school teachers also represent 2.6% of all workers, with an average age of 47 and women making up 86.8% of the profession.
Together, these four occupations — representing retail, transport and education — account for 13.5% of total employment in Poland, despite the fact that the occupational classification includes as many as 443 separate categories.
| Occupation | Share of Employment | Average Age | Female Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shop assistants and cashiers | 5.3% | 40 | 83.7% |
| Truck drivers | 3.0% | 44 | 1.3% |
| Warehouse workers and related occupations | 2.6% | 39 | 23.8% |
| Primary school teachers | 2.6% | 47 | 86.8% |
| Office, hotel and domestic cleaners and helpers | 1.7% | 49 | 91.2% |
| Accountants | 1.5% | 44 | 92.1% |
A Labour Market Divided by Gender
The data confirm strong occupational segregation by gender. Nearly all midwives, early childhood education specialists and dental assistants are women, with female shares exceeding 99% in each of these occupations.
At the other end of the spectrum are occupations dominated by men, including miners, bricklayers, agricultural machinery operators and roofers, where men account for almost 100% of workers.
Statistics Poland notes that gender concentration is even stronger in male-dominated occupations. As many as 19 occupations have a male share above 98%, while fewer occupational categories meet an equivalent threshold for women, defined as a female share of at least 95%.
Only a small number of occupations show a broadly balanced gender distribution close to 50/50. These include shop owners, bakers and confectioners, domestic service workers, head chefs and university lecturers. They remain exceptions in a labour market where the vast majority of occupations are heavily feminised or masculinised.
Specialist Doctors Are Ageing
The highest average age across the entire economy was recorded among specialist doctors, at 56, and specialist dentists, at 55. This is around 20 years higher than the average age of doctors without a specialisation, which Statistics Poland attributes to the longer path required to obtain specialist qualifications.
More than 66% of specialist doctors are over the age of 50, with the largest share in the 60-plus age group. A similar, though somewhat less pronounced, pattern applies to specialist nurses, nearly 60% of whom are over 50.
This signals a potential generational gap in healthcare. The high concentration of workers aged over 50 in specialised medical professions may lead to a clustering of retirements within a relatively short period. Statistics Poland directly links this trend with the fact that doctors have for years appeared on the list of shortage occupations in most Polish counties under the Barometer of Occupations survey.
At the other end of the demographic spectrum are occupations with the youngest workforce. Fast-food preparation workers, athletes and jockeys have an average age of 29, while models and flight attendants average 31.
Application programmers and other IT specialists also have a relatively young workforce, with an average age of 34 to 36. This reflects the relatively recent and rapid development of Poland’s technology sector.
Foreign Workers: Transport for Men, Retail and Cleaning for Women
Ukrainian citizens clearly dominate among foreign nationals working in Poland, accounting for 67.7% of the total. They are followed by Belarusians at 13.0%, Indians at 1.8%, Georgians at 1.4%, and Vietnamese, Russians and Turks, each at 1.1%.
The most common occupation among foreign workers overall is truck driver, accounting for 12.6% of all employed foreigners. It is also classified as a shortage occupation in Poland under the Barometer of Occupations.
Among the four largest groups of male foreign workers — Ukrainians, Belarusians, Indians and Georgians — truck driving is the number one occupation in every group, although to very different degrees. As many as 45.3% of employed Belarusians in Poland work as truck drivers, compared with 16.9% of Ukrainians.
Women account for 37% of all foreign workers in Poland. Their most common occupations are shop assistants, warehouse workers and cleaners, each representing around 5% of employed foreign women.
However, the occupational structure differs significantly by nationality. Ukrainian women most often work in warehouses, retail and cleaning, while Belarusian and Indian women are more likely to be employed in IT occupations, particularly as application programmers and computer systems analysts. Their average age is between 32 and 33.
Who Will Be Most Affected by Artificial Intelligence?
For the first time, the publication combines occupational data with two independent analyses of exposure to automation: a report by NASK-PIB and the International Labour Organization, and a study by the Polish Economic Institute.
According to the NASK-PIB and ILO analysis, more than 4.5 million people in Poland work in occupations that could be partly automated by generative AI. More than 640,000 are in the highest-risk group, where a significant share of daily tasks could be taken over by artificial intelligence.
Women account for as much as 77.2% of this highest-risk group, while the average age is just under 40.
Separate estimates based on the Polish Economic Institute methodology indicate that around 3 million people work in occupations classified among the 20 most exposed to AI. This group has an average age of 41, and women account for 57.8%.
The occupations most exposed are those based on repetitive information processing. Among secretaries, women account for 98.8% of workers in the risk group.
Geographically, occupations exposed to automation are concentrated in major urban areas with well-developed service sectors, including business-process outsourcing centres, call centres and accounting offices. They are least prevalent in rural and peripheral regions.
Civil-Law Contracts: From Teenagers to Retirees
In addition to employees, Statistics Poland also analysed 1.4 million people working exclusively under civil-law contracts, including contracts of mandate and similar arrangements.
The most common occupations in this group are cleaners and helpers, accounting for 6.0%, and workers performing simple industrial tasks, at 3.7%. Together, these two groups account for nearly 10% of people working solely under such contracts.
The age profile within this group is exceptionally diverse. The oldest workers are public officials and specialist doctors, with an average age of 65. The youngest are athletes, jockeys and product demonstrators, with an average age of 27.
Flexible forms of employment in gastronomy, customer service and transport are particularly attractive to younger workers, who combine employment with education or are gaining their first professional experience.
The Geography of Occupations
The experimental study has also enabled Statistics Poland to map the distribution of selected occupational groups at the municipal level using location quotients.
IT occupations are concentrated almost exclusively in large cities and their suburban zones, including Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, the Tri-City area and the Katowice conurbation.
Transport, warehousing and logistics are distributed along Poland’s main transport corridors, particularly the A2 and A4 motorways, with the strongest concentration in the Łódź and Mazowieckie regions.
Construction has a more decentralised distribution, with local concentrations in peripheral regions and smaller urban centres.
Tourism and hospitality are the most evenly distributed sectors, with visible clusters along the Baltic coast, in the Masurian Lake District and in mountain areas. However, data collected at the end of December show a stronger concentration in mountain municipalities than in coastal ones, reflecting the seasonal nature of tourism demand.
Data source: Statistics Poland, “Occupational Diversity in Poland’s Labour Market” (Experimental Studies, July 2026), prepared by the Statistics Poland Department of Methodology and Survey Quality in cooperation with the Statistical Office in Bydgoszcz. Data on exposure to automation and AI are based on NASK-PIB and ILO, “Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Polish Labour Market” (2025), and the Polish Economic Institute, “AI in the Polish Labour Market” (2024). Own analysis based on Statistics Poland data.
The data are based on administrative registers, including social-insurance records, regulated-profession registers and the 2021 National Population and Housing Census. Occupation was identified for 85.9% of those employed in the national economy and 78.3% of people working under civil-law contracts. Remaining gaps were filled using hot-deck imputation.
