Polish IT Job Listings Return to Pre-Cut Levels, Driven by AI

Poland's IT job market is climbing out of the slump triggered by the 2023-2024 layoff waves, and paradoxically the same technology once blamed for taking programmers' jobs is now driving the rebound. Data from the CzyJestEldorado.pl job search engine shows active recruitment listings have returned to pre-correction levels, with familiarity with generative AI now one of the most commonly listed requirements in job postings.

Recovery after the slump

August 2024 was remembered in the industry as the low point: tech companies were cutting recruitment budgets, and the number of new listings kept falling month after month. Two years later the picture looks completely different. According to data cited by Rzeczpospolita and picked up by Bankier.pl and Filary Biznesu, the market has not only recovered its losses but has now surpassed pre-slowdown levels.

Jacek Kobus, founder of CzyJestEldorado.pl, says the rise in listings is not incidental but reflects companies actually launching new projects after previously freezing investment. The rebound is broad enough to reach not just classic software houses but also firms rolling out large corporate projects, where process automation has become a business priority.

AI as a requirement, not a specialty

The most telling shift is in how employers frame their expectations of candidates. Familiarity with generative AI is no longer a distinguishing trait of a narrow group of machine learning specialists, it has become an expectation placed on a broad range of developers, analysts and data engineers.

AI has stopped being a specialty and become a competency. It's the fastest-growing requirement - Jacek Kobus, founder of CzyJestEldorado.pl

The trend is confirmed by data cited earlier by No Fluff Jobs, according to which searches for AI-related job listings rose 68 percent year over year, and queries for natural language processing skills rose as much as 195 percent. Justjoin.it, meanwhile, reported that in the first half of the year the number of IT job listings rose 86 percent year over year, with AI and machine learning specializations growing fastest of all, up 129 percent.

Who gains and who loses

The market rebound does not mean a return to the pre-2023 model. Recruitment firms stress that the profile of the sought-after candidate has changed radically. Instead of juniors, whose tasks are increasingly taken over by AI tools, employers are looking for experienced specialists who can combine technical skills with an understanding of a specific business problem.

The most valuable people are those who can use AI, data and cloud technologies to solve a specific business problem - Marta Prudel-Hankus, head of permanent recruitment, Awareson

That is showing up in pay. Candidates with AI experience and skills can command noticeably higher rates than a year ago, especially on B2B contracts, where some senior positions now exceed 100,000 zloty a month. At the same time, entry-level developer positions now make up only a fraction of all listings, which some analysts describe as a restructuring of the market rather than simple growth.

What it means for Polish companies

For employers in Poland, the data points to growing competition for specialists who can deploy generative AI-based solutions in real business processes, not just operate chatbots. Poland's rising appeal as a location for tech hubs, along with incoming foreign investment, is further pushing up demand for these skills.

For jobseekers in the industry, the signal is mixed: the market is growing, but the bar for entry is rising too. Skills in AI, data and cloud computing are becoming a prerequisite rather than a bonus on a resume, for developers as much as for analysts and process automation specialists.