In the second half of 2025, as “Gazeta Wyborcza” reminds, in Krakow, there was a lot of talk about layoffs in companies such as Aldi, Shell and Heineken.
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Nearly 100 people lost their jobs at Aldi, over 200 at Shell, and several hundred at the Heineken headquarters in Krakow. In the background of these decisions, the issue of moving business to India, where labor costs are much lower, appears more and more often.
Strategic management expert from the University of Economics in Krakow, prof. Justyna Bugaj, in an interview with “GW”, points out that Currently, Polish employees are training their successors from India, who will perform the same tasks for lower wages. The specialist estimates that this is a natural consequence of market changes and the rising costs of doing business in Poland.
Relocating business to India and rising labor costs
Heineken, which has its headquarters in Czyżyny, Krakow, decided to move part of the operations to a new center in Hyderabad. According to The Times of India the Indian branch may employ up to three thousand people. people.
Prof. Bugaj emphasizes that when international corporations entered the Polish market, it was clear that with the increase in labor costs in Poland, companies would start looking for cheaper solutions or focus on automation.
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Initially, it was expected that the next destination would be Ukraine, but now India has become the main beneficiary of these changes.
Carrefour closes stores and lays off employees
The Carrefour Polska chain has recently joined the list of companies announcing collective layoffs. At least eight stores will disappear from the country's map, which means the loss of jobs for up to 250 people, both in stores and offices. Trade unions warn that this number may increase to 350.
Carrefour, as reported by “Gazeta Wyborcza”, explains the decision “extremely competitive market environment” and decline in sales at the end of last year.
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The company is closing unprofitable branches, and there are reports in the media about the possible sale of Polish assets, although the network's representatives do not comment on this information.
Automation and artificial intelligence are changing the IT labor market
In 2025 in Krakow, as much as 40 percent all group layoffs concerned the IT industry. Programmers and IT specialists are losing their jobs mainly due to automation and the development of artificial intelligence, which is taking over repetitive tasks more and more quickly.
A similar situation applies to the accounting and bookkeeping sector, where processes have been automated and the number of employees needed has significantly decreased..
The expert notes that the IT market is not disappearing, but is undergoing transformation – simple tasks are being automated, while more complex ones still require human knowledge and skills.
Read also: Krakow is fighting a wave of layoffs. Artificial intelligence is changing the labor market
