An analysis prepared by Jooble presents the structure of the labor market for Generation Z in 2026, identifying three main paths to starting a career: junior positions, internships, and jobs requiring no experience. The report points to a clear discrepancy between the expectations of young people, who prioritize flexibility and remote work, and the available market offerings, dominated by on-site roles in logistics and manufacturing.

The Jooble document also highlights the key role of institutional internships offered by labor offices and the enormous importance of employment abroad, which for many becomes their primary earning option. Geographically, the market remains heavily centralized in the largest metropolitan areas, forcing candidates from smaller towns to be highly mobile or to accept less suitable offers. Overall, this depicts a system in which the stable number of job advertisements does not fully meet the aspirations and needs of a new generation of workers.

What are the three main models for entering the labor market in 2026?

In 2026, the first-job market is not uniform and is divided into three main entry models, each with its own characteristics, pace, and requirements:

  • The Junior Model – this is a path leading to a “real” profession in sectors such as IT, finance, analytics, or marketing. Although it is difficult to break through without specific skills, this model offers the clearest path for professional development once employment has been successfully secured
  • Internships and traineeships – this model accounts for 0.7% to 2.4% of the market and shows strong seasonality, with a clear increase in the number of offers in March and April. Administration, sales, and simple office roles dominate here, often described as “entering through the side door.” Importantly, the data indicate that this segment is strongly driven by institutional channels, particularly internships from Labor Offices (PUP), rather than solely by commercial job advertisements.
  • Jobs requiring no experience – a model based on a low entry threshold, where time is crucial: a fast start and quick earnings. These offers (accounting for 0.2% to 0.4% of the market) mainly concern warehouses, manufacturing, transport, and retail. In this segment, geography often extends beyond national borders – jobs requiring no experience largely function as part of an international labor circuit, with a strong representation of offers from Germany and the Netherlands.

Together, these three models account for approximately 3–4.5% of all job offers, representing a stable, though small, point of contact for people entering the labor market.

It is also worth noting that a common denominator across all paths is candidates’ growing expectation of remote work, which is not always reflected in the available structure of offers, dominated by on-site work.

Why are internships from Labor Offices so popular?

The popularity of internships from Poviat Labor Offices (PUP) in 2026 stems from the fact that they are the main mechanism driving the entire traineeship and internship segment, outweighing standard commercial job advertisements.

Scale and reach: Searches for the phrase “staż pup” form the largest single cluster in this segment, reaching more than 220,000 queries. This is significantly more than in the case of internships in popular fields such as IT (approximately 80,000) or psychology (approximately 40,000).

The main entry path: For many people, this is the primary way to gain their first professional experience, often described as “entering through the side door.” Many careers begin precisely through institutional channels rather than on the open market.

An alternative to the commercial market: The data indicate a clear difference between companies’ offers and candidates’ expectations. While companies mainly publish administrative roles and simple office jobs, PUP internships are seen as a real opportunity to begin a career that can be included on a CV.

Local importance: Since the supply of commercial offers is heavily concentrated in the largest metropolises (Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław), Labor Office internships may be a key opportunity for people from smaller and medium-sized towns, where candidate activity exceeds the availability of market offers.

Which cities outside Warsaw offer the most internships?

Outside Warsaw, which dominates the market and maintains the highest volume of offers, the following cities offer the greatest number of opportunities to find internships and junior/entry-level work.

  • Main centers (Top 4): After the capital, the largest number of offers is concentrated in Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, and Gdańsk. These are key centers for people beginning their careers.
  • Cities with moderate supply: The next places in the ranking are occupied by Katowice and Łódź, although the scale of available advertisements there is already clearly smaller than in the four cities listed above.
  • Other centers: The group of medium-sized cities also includes Lublin and Szczecin, while in smaller cities such as Rzeszów, Bydgoszcz, Białystok, and Toruń, the supply of offers is low and scattered.

Which countries besides Germany and the Netherlands are popular?

Besides Germany and the Netherlands, which regularly dominate the rankings, sources point to two other specific countries that are highly popular among job seekers: Norway, Switzerland.

It is also worth noting that the general category “Abroad” appears very frequently in search data and as an aggregated destination regularly surpasses individual Polish cities in terms of interest, and sometimes even all Polish locations combined.

This set of countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland) recurs in the data month after month, showing that going abroad for work is regarded as one of the obvious career-start options in 2026.