Poland’s labour market in the first quarter of 2026 did not simply expand in volume. It also changed in character. In the technology sector, more than half of all job postings were aimed at senior professionals, while hybrid and remote roles together accounted for 92% of vacancies. Flexibility has clearly become a prerequisite for competing for talent. At the same time, the strongest demand was seen for specialists in data, Java and project management.
Outside IT, employers continued to rely mainly on on-site work, with recruitment driven largely by sales, marketing and customer service. One issue, however, connected both segments of the market: salary transparency. The first full quarter after the implementation of new pay transparency rules did not deliver the breakthrough many had expected. These are among the key findings of the Q1 2026 Labour Market Barometer, a cyclical analysis prepared by justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl.
Experience becomes the decisive advantage
Data from the first quarter of the year suggest that the labour market is undergoing deeper structural change. On justjoin.it, the share of job offers targeted at senior candidates rose from 50% to 55%. This came at the expense of mid-level roles, which declined from 42% to 38%, and junior positions, which fell from 6% to 5%. IT employers are increasingly looking for people who can deliver business value quickly and operate with minimal ramp-up time.
Candidate behaviour reflects the same trend. Applications for senior-level positions on justjoin.it increased from 36% to 41%, while interest in mid-level roles dropped from 48% to 42%. More experienced IT professionals are clearly becoming more active on the market, and companies are showing a growing preference for narrow specialisations and proven expertise.
The picture is somewhat different on rocketjobs.pl, where demand remains more stable across experience levels. Mid-level roles still dominate, accounting for 60% of listings, while the structure of candidate applications has remained largely unchanged, with mid-level positions also attracting 59% of applications. This stability reflects the more linear career paths typically seen outside the tech sector, where distinctions between experience levels remain clearer.
Even so, both markets reveal the same underlying challenge. Employers need more experienced professionals than are currently available, while junior and mid-level candidates compete for a relatively limited pool of suitable offers. In IT, the mismatch is especially visible: every second employer is looking for a senior specialist, yet only four in ten applicants fit that profile. This imbalance could push senior salaries higher in the coming quarters and prolong hiring processes for key roles.
IT keeps betting on flexibility, while other sectors still value presence
Working model remains one of the strongest differentiators between offers and a major factor in candidate appeal. On justjoin.it, hybrid roles made up 48% of listings in Q1 2026, while remote offers accounted for 44%. Compared with the previous year, the changes were small. The share of remote jobs declined slightly from 47% to 44%, while hybrid work held its ground. In other words, flexible work arrangements in IT have already become a mature and stable market standard.
The situation looks different on rocketjobs.pl. There, on-site work still dominated, representing 52% of all offers, although this was slightly lower than the 55% recorded a year earlier. At the same time, mobile work became significantly more important, rising from 5% to 11%. This reflects the nature of operational and sales roles, which are far more common outside the technology sector.
The broader conclusion is clear. Over recent years, the way work is performed has stopped being a nice extra and has become a core part of employment strategy. In IT, employers have largely settled on a model that balances team efficiency with candidate expectations. Outside IT, on-site work still prevails, but the gradual rise of mobile and more flexible arrangements suggests that companies are adapting, albeit more slowly.
New rules, but little progress on pay transparency
The first quarter of 2026 was also the first full quarter after the amendment to the Polish Labour Code that came into force on 24 December 2025, implementing the EU pay transparency directive. Yet the data do not point to a major shift.
On justjoin.it, the share of offers that included salary ranges actually fell from 58.4% to 54.4%. On rocketjobs.pl, the increase was marginal, from 34.4% to 35.4%. Salary transparency therefore remains far more common in IT than in the wider labour market, but it is no longer gaining momentum. Outside the technology sector, disclosing pay ranges is still far from standard practice.
This suggests that employers are approaching the issue with more caution than anticipated. In IT, the decline may indicate that companies still want to preserve room for negotiation. In the wider market, the symbolic increase is too small to suggest a real shift in hiring culture. The likely conclusion is that regulation alone will not be enough. More visible change may only come once the new rules are fully enforced and become embedded in everyday recruitment practice.
Data, sales and AI drive hiring demand
Within IT, demand was strongest in data-related and software development roles. The Data category remained the leading segment, with 2,676 offers, followed closely by Java with 2,547. Project Management recorded the biggest jump, moving from fifth to third place in the ranking, with 2,172 offers. At the same time, JavaScript and DevOps fell out of the top tier, signalling a clear shift in the internal structure of demand across the technology market.
On rocketjobs.pl, the clear leaders were sales and marketing. Employers posted 14,945 offers in sales and 9,209 in marketing. Health and beauty, along with customer service, were among the fastest-growing categories and entered the top five for the first time.
A particularly striking development could be seen in AI and machine learning. On justjoin.it, the number of AI/ML vacancies more than tripled in Q1 2026, rising from 432 to 1,326. The number of incoming CVs increased by 156%. Importantly, the candidate profile also shifted towards more experienced professionals. The share of senior applicants rose from 28% to 43%, while the share of junior candidates fell from 27% to 16%. This shows that the AI labour market is not only expanding rapidly, but also maturing, with demand increasingly centred on experienced talent.
The broader hiring pattern reveals two parallel forces. Outside tech, businesses are putting recruitment budgets into revenue-generating functions such as sales and marketing. In tech, meanwhile, growth is increasingly concentrated in roles linked to data, decision-making and digital process design, rather than only traditional software development.
A clear increase in the number of job offers
In terms of total job postings, the first quarter of 2026 brought a strong rebound on both platforms. On justjoin.it, the number of published offers rose by 116% year on year, from 12,677 to 27,375. Rocketjobs.pl recorded an increase from 17,282 to 29,761 offers, representing 72% growth.
These results reflect both an improving macroeconomic backdrop and stronger demand for specialists. They also point to a growing employer base using both platforms. In percentage terms, justjoin.it expanded faster, but rocketjobs.pl still ended the quarter with a slightly larger total number of job postings.
Employment terms are becoming more flexible
Flexibility is not limited to working model alone. It is also increasingly visible in the form of employment being offered. On justjoin.it, B2B contracts remained dominant, accounting for 58% of listings. At the same time, the share of standard employment contracts fell from 35% to 28%, while the proportion of offers allowing candidates to choose the form of cooperation rose sharply from 2% to 12%.
Rocketjobs.pl continued to be led by employment contracts, which made up 50% of offers. Even there, however, their share declined, giving way to civil law contracts and offers open to a broader range of cooperation models.
Across the market, part-time roles rose from 6% to 9%, while freelance opportunities increased from 1% to 2%. The direction of change is consistent: both the IT market and the wider labour market are moving towards more flexible arrangements between employers and candidates.
Warsaw still leads, but decentralisation is gaining pace
Warsaw remained the largest recruitment hub on both platforms, accounting for 29% of IT offers and 25% of listings in other sectors. On justjoin.it, Kraków, Wrocław and the Tri-City area also retained strong positions, confirming the concentration of the technology sector in Poland’s main digital hubs.
On rocketjobs.pl, however, the distribution of offers was more dispersed. The share of listings from smaller cities rose from 28% to 31%, pointing to a gradual decentralisation of the labour market beyond IT. This suggests that while major urban centres continue to dominate, opportunities outside the biggest cities are becoming more visible.
A faster market with new rules of competition
The Q1 2026 data show a labour market that is clearly accelerating, but not returning to old habits. Companies are hiring more selectively, with stronger emphasis on experience, specialisation and role-specific skills. In IT, flexibility and expert knowledge have become the currency of competition. Outside technology, the market is expanding more broadly, driven by sales, marketing and service functions, but changes in working models and pay transparency are progressing at a slower pace.
The early months of the new salary transparency regime suggest that legal reform alone will not transform employer behaviour overnight. The same is true of work models: organisations are adapting, but only where business realities and talent expectations push them to do so.
For employers, the next few quarters may be shaped not only by how many vacancies they open, but by how quickly they adjust those offers to match what candidates increasingly expect. Experience, flexibility and clarity are becoming the new benchmarks of competitiveness in recruitment.
Methodology
The Q1 2026 Labour Market Barometer was prepared on the basis of an analysis of job postings and candidate applications on justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl. Together, the two platforms were visited by more than 4.2 million users in the first quarter of 2026. The findings compare Q1 2026 with the same period a year earlier.
