HR services market in Poland 2025 - key findings from the PFHR report
Polskie Forum HR has published its annual report on the condition of the HR services market in Poland. Element is a technology partner of PFHR, so we follow this data with particular interest. The 2025 figures show an industry that keeps moving forward despite economic uncertainty, though not all segments are growing at the same pace.
I went through the entire report. Here’s what I think matters most.
PLN 7.6 billion and 4% growth
Total revenue of PFHR member companies in 2025 reached PLN 7.6 billion (approx. EUR 1.7 billion), a 4% year-over-year increase. Not a spectacular number, but a solid result considering the slowdown across many European sectors.
The revenue breakdown looks familiar: temporary work (62.9%), outsourcing (25.7%), employee delegation abroad (4.6%), recruitment (4%), RPO (1.4%). Career management remains marginal at just 0.1% of total revenue.
Over one million people per year
Employment agencies in Poland support over one million people annually in finding work. That number deserves attention, because the scale of agency impact is often overlooked in labor market debates. Of that million, 698 thousand are in temporary work, 197 thousand in job placement, and 151 thousand are directed to work abroad.
8,286 agencies, but the number is shrinking
Poland has 8,286 registered employment agencies, 3% fewer than the year before. The market has very high turnover: 1,493 new agencies were registered in 2025, while 1,756 were struck off. More entities are disappearing than appearing.
The most common reason for deregistration is not bankruptcy but failure to meet formal obligations. 32% of agencies were removed for not submitting required reports to regional authorities, another 25% simply hadn’t operated for two consecutive years. This says a lot about how low the barrier to entry is and how many entities are agencies in name only.
The dominant legal form is a limited liability company (54%). The most agencies are registered in the Mazowieckie (1,857), Wielkopolskie (1,136), and Slaskie (817) regions.
Temporary work returns to growth
After several years of stagnation, temporary work has bounced back. The estimated number of temporary workers in Poland in 2025 is 740 thousand (up 6%), and the total temporary work market value reached PLN 7.4 billion.
PFHR member revenue in this segment was PLN 4,766 million, with clear seasonality – Q4 was traditionally the strongest (PLN 1,357 million).
One comparison worth remembering: in PFHR member companies, 82% of temporary workers are employed on proper employment contracts. The national average? 38%. This shows how different the realities are behind the common label of “temporary work.”
Foreigners make up half of temporary workers
49% of temporary workers in 2024 were foreigners, and there’s no reason to think 2025 was any different. Ukrainians dominate (265,900), followed far behind by Belarusians (15,400), Georgians (11,900), Colombians (8,900), and Moldovans (7,100).
What stands out is the growing geographic diversification. The Philippines, India, Nepal, Zimbabwe, and Uzbekistan are now on the list. Poland’s temporary labor market is becoming increasingly global. Companies aren’t waiting for workers from neighboring countries anymore – they’re recruiting literally worldwide.
Temporary worker profile
Statistically, a typical temporary worker in 2025 is male (52%), aged 26-50 (48%), employed in manufacturing (62%). Services account for 37%.
More than half (55%) work for less than 3 months, 34% from 3 to 12 months, and only 11% longer than a year. The average annual number of days worked per temporary employee in PFHR firms was 59.6. Temporary work is short by definition, but these numbers show just how short it really is.
Outsourcing grows faster than temporary work
Outsourcing posted 7% growth, reaching PLN 1,947 million among PFHR firms. Faster than temporary work, and this confirms something I’ve been observing for a while: companies increasingly prefer to hand over entire processes rather than just renting workers.
The outsourcing leader is Exact x Forestall, followed by Hays and Devire.
Recruitment: domestic down, international up
Total recruitment service revenue at PFHR was PLN 305 million. But it’s worth splitting these numbers: domestic recruitment (for Polish employers) fell 2% to PLN 280.1 million, while international recruitment grew 8% to PLN 25 million.
The domestic decline signals caution among Polish employers. Meanwhile, cross-border demand is rising – Polish workers are primarily directed to the Netherlands (41%), Germany (26%), Cyprus (9%), and Austria (4%).
Recruitment is dominated by specialist positions (52%), and the largest sector is services (57%). Gi Group Holding leads the ranking, ahead of Michael Page and Randstad.
RPO and Career Management: small but fastest-growing
The two smallest segments are growing the fastest. RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) posted 11% growth to PLN 106.4 million, and Career Management grew 21% to PLN 6.1 million.
The RPO growth makes sense. More companies prefer to hand recruitment to a specialized partner rather than maintain their own team. Career Management (outplacement, career advisory) is probably growing for two reasons: companies take more care in separating from employees, or more people are changing career paths. Likely both.
Delegation: the only segment in decline
Employee delegation abroad is the only segment that declined (-3%, to PLN 351 million). After dynamic growth in 2021-2023, when revenue nearly doubled (from PLN 195 to 373 million), the market has clearly slowed down.
Delegation primarily concerns manufacturing (71%) and agriculture (15%). The leader is Contrain, followed by Flowork and Synergie.
Rankings: who runs Polish HR?
The top three in total revenue remains unchanged: Randstad, ManpowerGroup, and Adecco Group. It gets more interesting when you look at individual segments: Gi Group Holding wins in recruitment, Exact x Forestall in outsourcing, and ManpowerGroup in RPO.
What does it all mean?
The PFHR report paints a picture of a market that’s growing unevenly. Temporary work and outsourcing are pulling the industry forward, domestic recruitment is slightly braking, and delegation is losing momentum.
What I find most interesting is that the fastest-growing segments are those where companies fully hand over processes to external partners: outsourcing and RPO. Internal HR teams simply can’t keep up with what’s happening in the labor market. AI is changing how recruitment works, the candidate pool is increasingly international, and regulations keep getting more complex. In that environment, a specialized partner has an edge that’s hard to match with an in-house team.
The full report is available on the Polskie Forum HR website.
DISCOVER ELEMENT!
Maciej Michalewski
CEO @ Element. Recruitment Automation Software
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