The job market situation January 2026
The average employment in the corporate sector in January 2026 amounted to 6400.5 thousand and was 0.8% lower than a year ago. The registered unemployment rate was 6.0% and increased by 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous month and by 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
The average employment in the enterprise sector (entities with more than 9 employees converted to full-time equivalents) in January 2026 was 6400.5 thousand and was 0.8% lower than a year ago.
The deepest decline in average employment year-on-year in January was recorded in mining and extraction (by 3.4%). Among the analyzed sectors, employment was also lower than a year ago in administration and support activities and in manufacturing (both by 1.4%), information and communication, transport and warehousing, and in the generation and supply of electricity, gas, steam and hot water (both by 0.9%), trade; repair of motor vehicles (by 0.5%), real estate activities (by 0.4%) and in construction (by 0.1%).
The highest employment growth was 3.1% and concerned the section of water supply; sewage and waste management; remediation. Employment also increased year-on-year in accommodation and food services (by 2.1%) and in activities related to culture, entertainment and recreation (by 1.9%).
At employment offices at the end of January, there were 934.1 thousand registered unemployed, which is 5.2% more than in December of the previous year and 11.5% more than in January of the previous year.
The registered unemployment rate was 6.0% and increased by 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous month and by 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
In January, 46 enterprises planned to lay off 3.8 thousand employees. The scale of planned layoffs was larger than the previous month but smaller than a year ago. By the end of January, under planned group layoffs, 164 enterprises reported the intention to lay off 22.8 thousand employees.
