The survey of the prospects for employment in Poland by American recruiters ManpowerGroup shows a brighter picture for the end of the year, with 35% of businesses in all sectors ready to recruit in the last three months of 2024.

Meanwhile, only 19% have declared they could be making cuts to employment during that period.

At the same time, 42% of the 542 companies polled by Manpower in Poland said they would keep employment stable, while 4% said they were unsure of their plans. Manpower calculates that the net recruitment in the Polish market—the balance of firms recruiting rather than firing—is 15%.

IT back on track

The best news on the recruitment front came from the information technology and transport/logistics sectors. In IT, which employs over 550,000 people in Poland, the net recruitment figure improved, with 28% more recruiting than firing.

This is one percentage point up on Manpower’s report for the third quarter of this year and 10 percentage points up on the final quarter of last year, when many companies in the sector were laying off workers.

Transport still suffering but still recruiting

The employment needs of the transport and logistics sector, which gives work to over 700,000 people and is responsible for 6% of Polish GDP, have increased since the last survey.

A 27% majority of companies said they wanted to take on new workers in Q4 rather than make cuts to staff numbers—up 5 percentage points on the forecasts for Q3 2024 and 11 percentage points on the survey for Q4 2023.

Trade website logystyka.net says the recruitment requirements owe more to driver shortages, which stretch to 400,000 posts Europe-wide, and less to the slight improvement in the sector’s results in 2024.

Tough times for mining, utilities

The prospects for new jobs in mining and utilities companies were less positive. While more firms were taking on staff in the third quarter, more are forecasting cutting worker numbers in Q4. The shift since Q3 2024 is 64 percentage points. Compared to Q4 2023, the difference is 46%.

The mining industry is going through a period of uncertainty as environmental policies are favoring greener forms of energy than coal, affecting employment at mines and power stations, where there is a glut of expensively produced Polish coal.