In IT, hybrid and remote work together account for 92%. advertisements – according to the “Labor Market Barometer Q1 2026”, a cyclical analysis of the portals justjoin.it and rocketjobs.pl. It was reported that the greatest demand concerns data, Java and project management specialists.
Data from the first quarter of 2026 show that the labor market is undergoing structural changes. On justjoin.it, the share of offers addressed to seniors increased from 50 to 55 percent, at the expense of mid-level roles (decrease from 42 to 38 percent) and junior roles (from 6 to 5 percent).
Today, IT companies are primarily looking for specialists capable of quickly delivering business value. This change is confirmed by the candidates themselves. On justjoin.it the share of applications for senior positions increased from 36 to 41 percent, while applications for mid-level roles decreased (from 48 to 42 percent). Seniors in IT are increasingly actively looking for new challenges, and the market clearly rewards narrow specializations and proven competences.
On rocketjobs.pl the demand structure remains much more stable – offers for mid-level candidates still dominate (60%), and the share of other segments changes slightly. This balance is confirmed by the candidates themselves – applications for mid roles invariably account for 59%. This is because career paths in non-technology industries are more linear and the boundaries between experience levels are more clearly defined.
However, it was pointed out that both markets show the same pattern: companies need more experienced specialists than are available on the market, while juniors and mid-level specialists compete for a limited number of offers at their level. In IT, this gap is particularly clear – every second employer is looking for a senior, but only four out of ten applicants have such a profile. This is an imbalance that may fuel further increases in salaries in the senior segment in the coming quarters and extend the recruitment time for key positions.
The method of performing work remains one of the key distinguishing features of offers and factors determining their attractiveness. On justjoin.it in Q1 2026, hybrid (48%) and remote (44%) offers still dominate, and changes compared to the previous year are minor – the share of remote work dropped from 47 to 44 percent. while maintaining a high level of hybrid. This means that in IT, flexible work models are already a stabilized market standard.
The situation is different on rocketjobs.pl, where stationary offers still predominate (52%).although their share decreased slightly compared to 2025 (55%). At the same time, the importance of mobile work has increased significantly – from 5 to 11 percent. – which reflects the specificity of operational and sales roles typical of non-technology industries.
The first quarter of 2026 is also the first full quarter after the entry into force of the amendment to the Labor Code (December 24, 2025), implementing the EU directive on pay transparency. However, the data do not show a breakthrough. On justjoin.it, the share of offers with salary ranges dropped from 58.4 to 54.4 percent, while on rocketjobs.pl there was only a symbolic increase – from 34.4 to 35.4 percent. Salary transparency in IT remains clearly higher than in other industries, but it is not increasing – and it is still not a standard on the broader market.
It is stated that in the IT area, recruitment was driven primarily by data and programming specializations. The Data category maintained its leading position (2,676 offers), followed by Java (2,547). Project Management advanced the most, moving from fifth to third position in the ranking (2,172 offers). However, JavaScript and DevOps fell out of the lead, which indicates a clear change in the demand structure within the IT market itself.
On rocketjobs.pl, roles in sales (14,945 offers) and marketing (9,209) are by far the most in demand. The fastest-growing categories included Health & Beauty and Customer Service, both entering the top five for the first time.
It was indicated that The AI/ML category on justjoin.it deserves separate attention, as in Q1 2026 there was a more than threefold increase in the number of advertisements (from 432 to 1,326), and the number of incoming CVs increased by 156%. Importantly, the structure of applicants has moved significantly towards experience – the share of seniors increased from 28 to 43 percent, while the share of juniors dropped from 27 to 16 percent. The AI/ML market is not only growing dynamically, but also clearly maturing, driven by increasingly experienced specialists.
In terms of the number of advertisements, the first quarter of 2026 brought a clear revival on both portals. On justjoin.it, the number of ads published increased by 116%. compared to the same period a year earlier (from 12,677 to 27,375). Rocketjobs.pl recorded an increase from 17,282 to 29,761 offers, i.e. by 72%. As reported, these results are driven by both positive macroeconomic signals and the growing demand for specialists, as well as the expanding base of employers using both websites. In percentage terms, justjoin.it grew more strongly, while rocketjobs.pl ended the quarter with a slightly larger number of publications.
It was pointed out that the growing flexibility is visible not only in the work model, but also in the forms of employment. B2B still dominates on justjoin.it (58 percent of offers), but the share of traditional employment contracts has dropped (from 35 to 28 percent), and there have been more advertisements allowing any form of cooperation (from 2 to 12 percent). On rocketjobs.pl, the employment contract remains the most popular form (50%), but even here its share is decreasing in favor of civil law contracts and offers open to various models. (PAP Business)
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