ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey Q1 2023
ManpowerGroup has published the latest report, in which companies reveal their hiring plans for January through March. The Net Employment Outlook for Poland, which is a labor market barometer and shows companies' willingness to attract new staff, for the coming quarter is dull at -2%. This result is 2 percentage points lower than the forecast declared for the current quarter. 24% surveyed companies talk about the plans of hiring new employees, 25% forecasting job cuts for next months. Almost half of the companies (48%) expect no change to their workforce levels, and only 3% do not know the plans for the next quarter.
Not many industries with recruitment optimism
One of Poland's most competitive sectors is Communication Services with a steady NEO of 33%, as well as Energy & Utilities with NEO 14%. A sector with a cautious positive NEO is Transport, Logistics & Automotive and Information Technology, both with 3%. Although IT sector saw a sharp drop of 41 percentage points since the previous year and 4 percentage points quater to quater. The overall drop in hiring expectations is also in part due to the Polish Financials & Real Estate sector, which fell by 8 percentage points since last quarter, from a bleak NEO of 6 to -2 percentage points.
The strongest competition for employees in south-west Poland
The most competitive hiring region in Poland is the South-West region, with a steady Outlook of 14%. Expectations in this region increased by 3 percentage points since the last quarter and weakened by 5 percentage points since Q4 2021. The Central and East regions are the least optimistic as it expects to decrease staffing levels with reserved hiring expectations of –6%. In the Central region is a drop of 10 percentage points quater to quater and 39 percentage points since the previous year. In the East region we can see similar situation, NEO for this quatter is – 1% lower than Q4 2022 and drop of 28 percentage points comparing year to year.
Micro-enterprises with the most difficult situation, medium-sized companies want to strengthen teams
Polish employers in organizations with more than 250 employees are the most optimistic (6%), even though expectations decreased by 3 percentage points in these organizations since the previous quarter. A gloomy drop in expectations for these organizations is comparing year to year – it is a 28 percentage-point fall since this time last year. Additionally, both small and medium organizations report a similar decrease staffing levels at NEO -3% and - 1%. This quarter reveals the most cautious hiring expectations for micro-organizations, which currently report a downbeat NEO of -5 percentage point – it is strong 17 percentage points increase quater to quater, but 7 percentage points weak decrease since the last year.