In May 2026, employers published more advertisements than in the corresponding month of the previous year. This is the first non-negative result in a year. According to data from the Element recruitment system for Grant Thornton, in May 2026, employers on the 50 largest recruitment portals in Poland published 267,000 new job advertisements. This is almost exactly the same result as in the corresponding month of 2025 (when 266,000 offers appeared).
The annual growth rate was therefore 0%, which is the highest in 12 months and is not in negative territory for the first time in a year. The three-month moving average annual growth rate (which seems to be the best measure given the high volatility of monthly data) was -3% and is also the highest in a year.
These results provide grounds for optimism and hope for the market to return to positive dynamics later in the year. The May increase in growth is even more encouraging as it was a period of high uncertainty in the global economy after the outbreak of war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which raised risks regarding the future economic outlook as well as the prices of oil and other energy sources globally and in Poland. It can be assumed that if it were not for this, the dynamics of job offers would have been even higher, i.e., it would have already reached a positive level.
Almost all major cities are already showing a year-on-year increase in the number of job offers.
The largest increase is visible in Poznań, Warsaw, and Łódź. In our monitoring, we also check how selected cities in Poland are performing in the labor market. In May, as many as 8 out of 10 surveyed agglomerations recorded a year-on-year increase in the number of job offers. This is a good sign, as major cities usually lead the trends of the entire labor market in Poland. Warsaw consistently performs the best. In May 2026, 43.8 thousand job offers were published in the capital - a y/y increase of 5%. Kraków takes second place in the ranking (17.4 thousand advertisements – a y/y increase of 2%), and Wrocław is third (13.2 thousand – a y/y increase of 1%).
The worst situation, however, is in Lublin – in April this year, employers published the fewest job advertisements there, with only 3.9 thousand offers, representing a y/y decline of 1%. However, it is worth remembering that just a few months ago, the volume of recruitment was shrinking much faster.
In May 2026, we recorded a decline in only a few of the surveyed professions. In healthcare, the positive dynamics reached as high as 14%. Furthermore, IT professionals, after a longer break, can find more job offers than a year ago (+1%).
>>>more: https://elementapp.ai/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/OFERTY-PRACY-maj-2026.pdf
