With record-low unemployment and strong demand, labour shortages are growing, and an ageing population is likely to add to those pressures. In 2024, Poland’s unemployment rate for 15–64-year-olds was just 3%, well below the OECD average of 5%. As a result, employers are increasingly struggling to fill vacancies, with the average quarterly number of job vacancies almost doubling from 56 000 in 2014 to 107 000 in 2024. Demographic trends are expected to intensify these labour shortages, as the number of 15–64-year-olds is projected to fall from 24.8 million in 2024 to 19.8 million by 2050.
Increasing labour force participation by activating parts of the 4.9 million economically inactive people of working age has become a strategic priority, including through efforts to identify groups that are inactive because of employment barriers. While Poland’s economic inactivity rate, at 25% of the working-age population, was close to the EU-27 (25%) and OECD (26%) averages in 2024, rates vary significantly across population groups. In Poland, economic inactivity remains high for working-age women (Poland: 31%, EU-27: 29%), for those aged five years below the Polish statutory retirement age (Poland: 31%, EU-27: 31%), and significantly elevated for working-age people with a disability (Poland: 66%, EU-27: 45%) and for those aged five years above the Polish statutory retirement age (Poland: 78%, EU-27: 64%).
The national economic inactivity rate masks substantial geographic disparities, both in levels of inactivity and in its underlying causes. The gap between the regions with the highest and lowest inactivity rates was 14 percentage points in 2024, well above the OECD average of 10 percentage points. Large disparities also exist at the powiat (local) level, even when students are excluded. The highest inactivity rates are found in former coal-mining regions in the south, where early retirement is common, and in rural powiats in the north and south-east, where discouragement from seeking work is widespread. The lowest rates occur in urban areas with stronger employment opportunities, greater access to childcare and more developed transport infrastructure.
Previous OECD work has highlighted accessible childcare, improved digital infrastructure, and place-based skills policies as levers to reduce economic inactivity in regions with the highest inactivity rates. Expanding childcare infrastructure, in particular for very young children in rural areas, would enable mothers to return to work and would be especially beneficial in eastern Poland, where inactivity is relatively high and childcare provision for the youngest children remains underdeveloped. Improving digital infrastructure can facilitate teleworking and enable mobility-impaired individuals to participate in the labour market. Finally, place-based policies can support workers in regions most affected by labour market transformations. For instance, in areas experiencing job losses linked to the net-zero transition, such as Silesia, local reskilling and upskilling policies can help smooth the transition and prevent economic inactivity.
A 2025 legislative reform in Poland expanded the mandate of the Public Employment Services (PES) to include support for economically inactive individuals through active labour market policies. Under the 2004 Act on Employment Promotion and Labour Market Institutions, economically inactive individuals, defined as those not employed and not registered with the PES, were not considered a target group of the PES and were not eligible for any services. The 2025 Act on the Labour Market and Employment Services requires the PES to actively reach out to and support economically inactive individuals, granting them access to activation services and programmes delivered by labour offices.
In Poland’s multi-level PES, the success of Poland’s 2025 reform will depend primarily on its 340 Powiat Labour Offices, yet their capacity for client engagement and programme delivery varies widely. Within Poland’s multi-level PES, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy (MRPiPS) sets strategic priorities, issues guidelines for active labour market policies, and allocates funding to regional and local offices. Regional Labour Offices (Wojewódzkie Urzędy Pracy – WUP) monitor and analyse labour market trends, while Powiat Labour Offices (Powiatowe Urzędy Pracy – PUP) manage client registration, coordinate unemployment benefits, deliver active labour market policies, and match jobseekers with vacancies. Although all PES levels must adapt their functions to engage economically inactive individuals, the greatest demands will fall on the PUP. Yet their capacity varies sharply: in 2022, before the passing of the 2025 Act, there were on average 71 registered unemployed individuals per client-facing PUP employee in Lubusz, compared with 178 in Podkarpacia.
The PES currently lack the infrastructure to identify, contact, and register economically inactive individuals. While other public bodies such as the Social Insurance Institution (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych) and Social Assistance Offices (Ośrodki Pomocy Społecznej) interact with or hold personal data on relevant economically inactive groups, including recipients of disability, early retirement, and maternity benefits, the PES does not have formal access to these resources. Social economy organisations, despite their experience working with economically inactive populations, are also not systematically integrated into PES outreach efforts. Moreover, the PES have limited experience collaborating with local schools or community-based actors, limiting their ability to reach women seeking to return to work after long care-related absences.
Current PES activation tools are designed for the unemployed and do not address the more complex barriers faced by economically inactive individuals. The existing service catalogue, comprising job mediation, career counselling, short-term training, and internships, was developed to support those with recent and continuous labour market attachment. Economically inactive individuals, by contrast, often differ substantially from the typical PES client. Many have limited or no work experience and have been out of the labour force for extended periods. They are also more likely to report poor mental health, live with disabilities, have care responsibilities for children and elderly relatives, or reside in rural areas with limited access to jobs. For many, these employment barriers need to be addressed before job matching can be effective. Yet, the PES currently lack the tools and capacity to do so.
Close relationships with local employers can help the PES identify opportunities for clients who are hard to place or have specific workplace needs, but PES employer engagement remains underdeveloped. Flexible arrangements such as part-time work, remote work, and flexible hours can enable some people, such as women with care responsibilities, people with disabilities or older people, to take up employment when full-time jobs are not feasible. However, only 4% of workers aged 15 to 64 were in part-time jobs in 2023, compared to the OECD average of 15%. Similarly, just 5% regularly worked from home, compared to 9% in the EU. An OECD survey of PES offices and employer interviews show strong cooperation on financial incentives such as wage subsidies and internships, particularly for people with disabilities. Local job fairs with employer-focused workshops have also attracted broad participation. However, both PES staff and employers point to gaps in services. While some employers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), make use of advisory support, many report a lack of recruitment guidance and cite bureaucratic barriers as limiting factors to greater uptake. The provision of labour market information, though a statutory responsibility of the WUP, is often perceived as insufficient or difficult to access, with many employers unaware of its availability or relevance.
To complement investments in transport, digital infrastructure, and childcare with active labour market policies targeting Poland’s economically inactive population, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, together with the Regional and Powiat Labour Offices, could build on the following policy recommendation:
Reach and register different groups of economically inactive with the PES through local partnerships in the short term, while building the legal and technical infrastructure for inter-institutional data exchange and automatic PES registration in the long term:
In the short-term, cooperate with social economy organisations, schools and community-based organisations to reach economically inactive people: The PES could work with partners such as social economy organisations, local schools and Poland’s Rural Housewives Associations (Koła Gospodyń Wiejskich) to engage groups such as people with disabilities and economically inactive women in urban and rural areas. Regular information sessions, drop-in counselling points, and career workshops could inform economically inactive people about the PES offer and encourage their registration with the PES. Social economy organisations can further contribute to policy design, deliver services, or act as employers.
In the short-term, sign local partnership agreements with Social Assistance Offices (Ośrodki Pomocy Społecznej - OPS): Around 4% of Poland’s economically inactive population receive social welfare benefits through OPS, with people close to the statutory retirement age and people with disabilities making up the largest share. Among OPS clients, those who could benefit from activation services could be identified based on their employment status and referred to the PES. OPS-PES agreements could draw inspiration from France’s Comprehensive Support programme and define referral procedures, outline data governance responsibilities, and set out how OPS can inform individuals about available PES services.
In the long-term, develop the legal and technical infrastructure that allows an automated data exchange with Poland’s Social Insurance Institution (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych - ZUS): Poland could amend current regulations to allow PES access to data from the Social Insurance Institution and specify the types of data that PES have access to, including information on recipients of disability, early retirement, and childcare benefits. A secure data pipeline, modelled on Estonia’s X-Road system, could then be developed to link and transfer data between the two institutions.
Introduce new activation measures that address complex employment barriers and promote flexibility by outsourcing selected services to external providers:
Introduce socio-psychological counselling and soft skills training for individuals transitioning into the labour market from economic inactivity: Clients identified as needing psychological support could be referred to external partners by career counsellors following an initial assessment of employment barriers. In-house soft skills training could be offered to newly registered PES clients to help them develop essential workplace behaviours such as communication, teamwork, and self-organisation.
Introduce simple work ability assessments for PES clients with health-related limitations to help direct them towards more suitable services: Simplified work ability assessments could be modelled in parts on Estonia’s system and include both physical and mental health self-evaluations to identify capacities in individuals with health-related limitations. The PES could then support clients in rebuilding the physical, psychological, and social capacities as well as the skills needed for labour market participation. In the long-term, a closer integration with disability assessments conducted by ZUS could yield efficiency gains and enable the PES to draw on the expertise of ZUS medical professionals to inform the work ability of clients.
Support the labour market reintegration of older workers and women returning after extended periods of inactivity through targeted, flexible measures: For older individuals, this could include employer-led mentoring, awareness campaigns to combat age discrimination, and low-intensity flexible job opportunities sourced from households, SMEs, and local authorities. For women, returner programmes, modelled on the UK’s Returners Programme, could offer short-term training and structured group sessions focused on career planning, confidence-building, and navigating re-entry into the workforce.
Enhance the attractiveness of PES to local employers and build strong networks that support the labour market integration of economically inactive individuals:
Build the capacity of the PES by training staff to engage effectively with employers, enhance labour market intelligence, and provide HR counselling to SMEs: Drawing on Slovenia’s experience, PES staff training could focus on advocacy for clients, relationship-building with employers, and negotiation skills. The PES could also provide more timely and granular labour market information by incorporating online job vacancies, explicitly measured skills demand, and medium-term labour demand forecasts into their analyses. A hybrid HR counselling model could follow Austria’s approach and support SMEs through advice from trained PES staff on recruitment, onboarding, work organisation, and employee retention, complemented by outsourced services to address more structural workforce challenges.
Identify employers with corporate social responsibility strategies and family-friendly policies, as well as social economy organisations: Mapping employers, including social cooperatives, engaged in inclusive hiring practices could build a pool of suitable job opportunities for clients who face significant challenges participating in the labour market. To encourage employer participation, the PES could recognise family-friendly companies that offer flexible working arrangements through certification schemes or annual awards.
Scale up successful models of local job fairs and introduce innovative workshops and job dating events to encourage employer participation: The PES could expand job fairs by integrating labour market information sessions, HR-related workshops, and guidance on digital accessibility. Community-based formats such as “job dating” events in informal settings, where PES clients and employers participate in team-based activities, could be introduced.