Poland economy grows by 4.1% amid declining employment

Poland's economy experienced significant growth in the second quarter of 2026, with real GDP increasing by 4.1% year-on-year. This growth was driven by an 8.4% rise in investments, a 10.8% increase in exports, and a 2.8% rise in household consumption.

Despite the economic acceleration, there is a growing divergence between production and employment. Average employment in the enterprise sector fell by 0.8% year-on-year in September, and the number of jobs from January to September was approximately 1% lower than the previous year. While BAEL data shows a slight 0.2% increase in the total number of working people to 17.23 million, the mismatch between rising output and stagnant employment suggests increasing labor productivity.

Unemployment according to BAEL rose from 2.8% to 3.2% year-on-year, with the number of unemployed individuals increasing by 14.1% to 574,000. Meanwhile, Erste Bank Polska has launched the ‘PKB Tracker,’ an econometric tool designed to provide real-time estimates of economic growth through nowcasting to help bridge the information gap caused by delayed official statistics.