Today's labour market: challenges and trends part. AND

It is said that the domain of today's labor market is the constant expansion of its horizons, readiness for change and continuous development. At the same time, more and more often many of us have a feeling of excess development in the absence of better prospects for effortless work. However, in order to better examine the issue of the current labor market, it is worth taking a look at studies that interestingly illustrate not only its current state, but also increasingly fashionable labor market trends.

In a recently published report Labour market, education, competences. Current Trends and Research Results (September 2025) prepared by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development we will find among others. the answer to what kind of challenges the unemployed face. To understand the context of our labor market, it is worth mentioning several key indicators shown in the report:

• Registered unemployment rate In Poland it is 5,5% (August 2025).
• Unemployment rate for the Member States of the European Union (EU-27) is 5,9% and 6.3% for the Eurozone. During this period, according to the Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate in Poland is 3.2% (data for August 2025).
• Employment in the corporate sector amounted to 6.41 million people and the average gross salary was PLN8750.34 (September 2025).
• To the employment offices 41.1 thousand vacancies and professional activation were reported (September 2025).

In Poland, in August 2025, the largest share of the unemployed were long-term unemployed persons, i.e. those who remain unemployed for a total of at least 12 months in the last 2 years and are registered with the employment office at that time. During this period The highest unemployment rate was recorded in Podkarpackie voivodship (8.9%), followed by Warmian-Masurian voivodships (8.5%) and Świętokrzyskie (8%). Lowest rate unemployment occurred in the provinces of Wielkopolskie (3.4%), Silesia (4.2%) and Mazowiecki (4.4%).

The report also draws attention to the structure of unemployment by gender. In September 2025. Women were a slightly larger group of unemployed. — were registered 436.5 thousand women considering 429.6k men. This difference is not large, however, both among women and men compared to September 2024, the number of unemployed increased by several tens of thousands of people.

What about professional activation?

In the public debate, the role of professional activation and job offers addressed to people registered as unemployed is often emphasized. However, the data show that the availability of these offers varies significantly between regions.

In September 2025, the largest number of vacancies and offers of professional activation were reported in the voivodships Masovian, Silesian and Lesser Poland, that is, where The unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country. However, the fewest offers appeared in the provinces Opole, Lubuskie and Świętokrzyskie.

Simultaneously the highest number of unemployed persons per job offer was recorded in Podkarpackie voivodship (42 people per 1 job offer), while least in the Opole Voivodeship (13 people) - with a national average of 22 people on 1 offer.

Such a distribution indicates that the desire to get a job does not always go hand in hand with the real availability of offers. In regions with a weaker labour market, barriers may arise from, among others:

• lower level of investment,
• the limited development of enterprises,
• the structure of the local economy and the dominance of less stable sectors.

It is worth analyzing unemployment not only through the lens of the unemployed, but also Regional Employment Opportunities, which in many cases is a key limitation.

Poland compared to other EU countries

Looking at the situation in the other EU Member States, Poland ranks at One of the better places in terms of unemployment rate. With the result 3,2% (according to the Labour Force Survey) we 5th place from the endThis means that unemployment is relatively low. For comparison, The lowest unemployment rate was recorded in the Czech Republic (3.0%), whereas highest in Spain (10.5%).

However, it is worth remembering that official indicators do not take into account undeclared unemployment nor persons who:

• did not report to the employment office,
• are not actively looking for work,
• work in unstable forms of employment or in a gray area.

Therefore, even with a favorable statistical result The challenge is to activate people outside the labour market and increasing the availability of jobs in regions with weaker economic structures.

What does an employee from Poland think about?

Respondents surveyed in Poland declare that It takes an average of 4.4 months to search for a new job (1st half of 2025). This is a relatively long period, especially considering that employment often takes place on the basis of civil law contracts (contract to order) or B2B contracts, which do not provide protection or a notice period comparable to an employment contract. As a result, people employed in such forms must have a financial “safety cushion” for several months in order to be able to support themselves during a break in employment.

Another important conclusion is positive perception of multi-time work — the solution evaluates it well 57% of employees while only 39% of employers. This may indicate that one source of income is often insufficient or too insecure, prompting employees to diversify their employment.

In terms of work organization models, 61% of employees support the introduction of a 4-day work week. The highest support is expressed by the younger generation (71% between the ages of 18 and 29), which may be due to the greater emphasis on work-life balance. On the other hand, people over 60 (44%) and management (53%) are more reserved about this idea.

Changes in work culture

What the report also shows is that our work culture and perceptions of how we can make money are no longer linked, as they used to, with education. In this way, it was the practice that became more important than the diploma obtained. Perhaps this should not come as a surprise when looking also at the level of education itself or the ease of obtaining the diploma itself. 91% of respondents believe that real experience is more important in running a company than a university degree. This shows some change in the way of thinking about career development; Knowledge “from life” and skills acquired on the job are increasingly valued higher than formal education.

When it comes to experiences of discrimination nHalf of respondents (49%) declare that they have personally experienced it on the job market or in the recruitment process. Moreover, 42% of respondents know such situations from their environment. This means that for many people, entering or returning to the labour market is not just a matter of competence, but also social barriers and unequal treatment. These are important data that show that at one time we did not always have the courage to admit these types of problems or were not able to verbalize them, which is perhaps due to the fact that discrimination at work was not once a concept widely discussed.

summary

Today's labor market is characterized by high volatility and differentiation of employment conditions depending on the region and the economic situation. Although the unemployment rate in Poland is relatively low compared to the EU, long-term unemployment, limited availability of job offers in some provinces and unstable forms of employment remain a challenge. At the same time, the importance of practice, the need for financial security and the expectation of a greater work-life balance are growing. Sources:

1. https://www.parp.gov.pl/storage/publications/pdf/Rynek-pracy_pazdziernik_2025.pdf