Poland’s labour market shifts to ‘silent layoffs’ as individual redundancies surge 11%
Registrations of jobless from employer-side reasons climbed 11% year-on-year in early 2026, reaching nearly 163,000, while companies favour hidden individual cuts over large-scale group dismissals.
Quiet layoffs replace mass redundancies
Poland is experiencing a wave of hidden job cuts that barely register in official tallies of group layoffs. In the first four months of 2026, close to 163,000 people registered at labour offices after being dismissed for reasons attributable to their employers, an increase of 11% compared with the same period a year earlier. The trend has been corroborated by HR industry data; according to LHH, the number of workers enrolled in outplacement support programmes during the first five months of the year was 12% higher than in the equivalent window of 2025, which itself was a record year.
Although there are fewer large group layoffs now, the number of individual redundancies has increased, and these are not as visible in the statistics.
Anna Tietianiec, a labour market expert at Manpower, confirmed a parallel rise in active candidates emerging from such point-specific dismissals. The shift is reshaping the landscape: instead of headline-grabbing announcements affecting hundreds of staff at once, employers are quietly trimming single positions or small teams across departments.
What is driving the cuts
The primary engines of the reductions, analysts told the daily Rzeczpospolita, are cost pressure, process optimisation, and a weaker economic climate in certain sectors. Automation and artificial intelligence are starting to play a role, though economists stress that they are not yet the dominant cause.
- 2025 (Jan–Apr)
- 146847
- 2026 (Jan–Apr)
- 163000
Who feels the squeeze
Experienced specialists and managers with long tenure and higher salaries are bearing the brunt. The same reporting indicates that the job-search period has lengthened considerably: specialists now need on average about six months to secure a new position, while managers can face a search lasting up to a year.
We are observing a clear increase in the number of active candidates on the labour market, resulting from individual, targeted layoffs.
The pattern suggests a structural shift in Polish employment practices. Firms are pursuing stealth headcount reductions that are harder to capture in headline unemployment figures, leaving mid-career and senior professionals in a lengthened transition between roles.
