The number of registered unemployed people is increasing and the number of job offers is decreasing. In January 2026, employers published approximately 253,000 advertisements, 238 thousand in February — by 8 and 7 percent less than a year earlier.
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The Ministry of Labor explains that cuts in financing for activation programs from the Labor Fund are responsible for some of the changes. At the same time, this year more people found unsubsidized work or started a business.
Where you still see the most reports
Although the scale of planned reductions is much lower than a year ago, companies still inform labor offices about subsequent group layoff procedures.
Data from voivodeship labor offices show that since the beginning of 2026, the largest number of people reported has been recorded in Greater Poland — 4,928 employees. However, it must be remembered that up to 3,487 of them are the result of one large report covering employees from all over the countryand not only from the region.
It came in second place Masoviawhere a total of 1,061 people were notified of their intention to dismiss from January to March. This is incomparably less than a year earlier, when the statistics were dominated by Poczta Polska and PKP Cargo. This time the scale is much more dispersed – in the period January-March, 17 applications were registered, with the actual number of unique employers being 16.
IN Lesser Poland in the first months of the year, 809 people were reported. However, the Labor Office stipulates that – as in previous years – some of the data may concern employees from all over Poland, if the notifications are made by the company's headquarters located in the region.
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From January to March, eight bets on Lower Silesia reported its intention to dismiss a total of 618 employees, but the office did not provide a detailed monthly schedule. Although the region is not among the reduction leaders, the scale of planned cuts remains clearly larger than in most voivodeships.
The exception to the dispersed nature of this year's reductions is the voivodeship Opole Voivodeshipwhere one company reported its intention to lay off 593 people. However, the process is to be spread over time – according to data from the Opole Voivodeship Labor Office, the reductions are to be implemented gradually by the end of 2027.
IN Lubuskie since the beginning of the year, the reports have covered a total of 270 people, and in Podkarpackie 180 people.
Production and logistics on the front line of layoffs
Available data from notifications suggest that in 2026, a large part of the planned reductions are mainly due to industrial processing, production and logistics, especially in regions such as Lubuskie, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and West Pomeranian Voivodeship.
In the latter region, layoffs concerned a very wide range of industries: from clothing production and metal processing, through meat processing and energy, to reloading in sea ports. A similar picture can be seen in the Łódź province, where in February four companies reported 211 job cuts, mainly in the production and logistics sector.
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There are also brighter spots on the layoff map
However, there are voivodeships where the situation is clearly more stable. Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship reports fewer reports than a year earlier, and the number of people actually dismissed is similar to last year. In the voivodeship Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since the beginning of the year, only two people have been reported for group layoffs, and in the Świętokrzyskie region the procedures appeared only in April.
On Lublin region new reports covered 112 people, but in fact 239 employees had already lost their jobs – mainly as part of procedures initiated earlier. Unfortunately, by the time the text was published, there was no complete data from Silesiawho was one of the leaders in layoffs a year ago.
Fewer offers, but no “tsunami” of layoffs
Although the narrative about a wave of layoffs returns regularly, hard data does not confirm it. This year's statistics are incomparably lower than in 2025, when the notifications in Masovia alone exceeded 68,000. people.
At the same time, the labor market is clearly slowing down on the demand side. The number of advertisements is decreasing, competition between candidates is increasing, and recruitment processes are taking longer.
Andrzej Kubisiak, deputy director of the Strategy Department of the Ministry of Finance, in a comment on social media, emphasizes that in 2025 the number of jobs eliminated was the lowest since 2010, and the balance of full-time positions remained positive. Simultaneously systematically slows down the demand for work: the number of recruitment advertisements has been decreasing year by year for many months, which means more candidates for each position and longer processes.
According to the expert, “the perception of the labor market today is shaped primarily by weaker demand for new employees, not by a wave of layoffs, but The question remains whether to what extent this is the result of the economic slowdown and how much of it is due to structural technological changes — automation and dissemination of AI.
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Data from labor offices are an early signal, not the final market balance. Notification is a legal obligation that the employer must fulfill before the procedure begins – but it does not have to result in the termination of contracts. Some reports concern notices changing working or pay conditions, others are withdrawn, and in companies with trade unions, initiating the procedure is sometimes a condition for starting talks.
Therefore, it is worth reading the statistics of group layoffs together with information on the number of job offers, employment plans and changes in unemployment. This picture – on the one hand, local pockets of reductions in industry and logistics, on the other hand, unemployment still low compared to the EU and a slowing but still significant demand for labor – suggests the market is adapting to new conditions rather than its collapse.
