Talent shortage? 57 percent companies have difficulties with recruitment

57 percent Polish employers declare difficulties in recruiting employees, by 2 percentage points. less than a year earlier – according to the “Talent Shortage” report by ManpowerGroup. Candidates with engineering skills are the hardest to find.

The greatest recruitment challenges are faced by companies from the information and communication sector (67%), hotel, catering and tourism (63%) and industrial production (61%). A year earlier, shortages were most felt in the transport, logistics and automotive, as well as life sciences and health care industries.

As emphasized by Tomasz Walenczak, CEO of ManpowerGroup Polska, quoted in the press release devoted to the research results, the current data should be analyzed in the context of the record-breaking years of 2021-2022, when the economy was dynamically rebounding after the pandemic, and the demand for employees and the number of vacancies were the highest in history. In 2024–2025, the labor market entered a phase of normalization and slowdown, and some industries made employment adjustments. The number of published offers has decreased, which has increased competition between candidates.

Simultaneously the nature of the shortage changes – from quantitative to qualitative. Companies are giving up mass recruitment in favor of acquiring highly specialized competences. It is most difficult to find candidates with skills in engineering (21 percent of responses), sales and marketing (19 percent) and skills related to the use of AI tools (18 percent). Additionally, 17 percent companies indicate a lack of competence in creating AI-based models and applications.

It is the first time that competencies related to artificial intelligence have appeared so high on the list and – as the report shows – in Poland they have almost replaced traditional IT and data analysis skills. Globally, the trend is even stronger – AI has overtaken all other competence categories.

In response to the talent shortage, 27 percent companies declare the development of current employees as the main strategy for acquiring competences. 22 percent are planning salary increases, and 21 percent – greater workplace flexibility. According to the authors of the report, reskilling (retraining) and upskilling (raising qualifications) of employees will be of key importance in the coming years, including: in the context of unfavorable demographic trends and aging society.

The “Talent Shortage” report was developed on the basis of a study conducted on a group of 502 companies in Poland. The study was also carried out globally in 41 countries on a group of nearly 40,000 enterprises, between October 1-31, 2025. (PAP)

pif/mmu/