Just a few years ago, temporary work was primarily associated with seasonal demand, sudden staff shortages, or the need to quickly fill open positions. Today, it is increasingly becoming one of the models that companies consider as early as the employment planning stage.
The reason is simple: companies need flexibility, but at the same time they operate in an environment where the proper choice of employment status is subject to increasingly strict regulations.
The latest data on the activities of employment agencies reveal an interesting trend. In 2025, 19,803 client companies used temporary labor —840 more than the previous year. At the same time, the number of people placed in temporary jobs remained at approximately 697,000.
This is an important signal.
Temporary employment does not have to grow solely by increasing the number of employees. The group of companies that are beginning to use this model in their employment practices is also expanding.
A permanent position remains the foundation. But it doesn't address every business need.
Permanent employment is the foundation of many organizations, and there is no indication that this will change.
The problem arises when a company's demand is not constant.
Production receives an additional order. The warehouse is preparing for a seasonal peak. The company is launching a new production line. Absences are causing a temporary staffing shortage. The contract requires the team to be expanded for a few months, but the company does not yet know whether the increased volume will continue into next year.
Creating permanent positions for each of these situations is not always the best solution.
That is why companies increasingly need not just a single form of employment, but a well-designed structure in which different models address various operational needs.
One of them is temporary work.
Nearly 20,000 employers made use of temporary workers
The data for 2025 clearly illustrates the scale of the market.
A total of 19,803 user employers utilized temporary labor, compared to 18,963 a year earlier.
Employment agencies placed approximately 697,000 people in temporary jobs.
It is precisely the comparison of these two pieces of data that is particularly interesting.
The number of employees did not increase significantly, but the number of companies using this model did increase.
This may indicate that temporary work is becoming a solution adopted by an increasingly broad group of companies—not necessarily as the primary method of building a team, but as one component of their hiring strategy.
Temporary work is still associated with warehousing and manufacturing. But the market is broader
Jobs involving manual labor still account for the largest share of the market.
Warehouse workers, packers, production workers, and those performing simple industrial tasks are prime examples of positions where staffing needs can change rapidly depending on production volume or the number of orders.
At the same time, the use of temporary workers need not be limited solely to such processes.
The model can also be used at some workstations:
- technical,
- administrative,
- sales,
- related to customer service,
- office,
- that support HR processes or accounting.
So the key question is not whether the position is “field-based” or “office-based.”
What is far more important is:
What are the nature of the company's staffing needs, and which employment model actually suits them?
Why do companies incorporate temporary work into their hiring strategies?
The first reason is, of course, flexibility.
The demand for workers is less and less likely to follow a perfectly straight line throughout the year.
In logistics, sales seasons are important. In manufacturing, it’s the number of orders and new contracts. In industry, it’s the launch of projects and production lines. In other sectors, it’s periodic spikes in demand, employee absences, or unforeseen operational changes.
Temporary employment allows a company to adjust part of its workforce to its current situation without having to permanently expand its entire structure.
The second reason is time.
Conducting the recruitment, paperwork, hiring, and onboarding of a large group of employees on your own requires HR department resources. Working with an agency allows you to outsource a significant portion of this process to an external partner.
The third reason is the predictability of the legal framework.
And it is precisely this aspect that will take on special significance in 2026.
690 complaints filed with the National Labor Inspectorate in just over a month
As of July 8, 2026, the National Labor Inspectorate has new tools for investigating cases in which civil law contracts were used under conditions typical of an employment relationship.
Initial data indicate that this is not merely a theoretical change.
Between July 8 and August 13, the National Labor Inspectorate (PIP) received 690 complaints and requests regarding the improper selection of a civil-law form of employment.
Since the beginning of 2026, there have already been 1,794 such reports. By comparison, during the same period in 2025, the PIP recorded 619.
Inspectors launched more than 100 inspections and issued 121 written orders requiring confirmation of employment under an employment contract.
Furthermore, in 201 cases, employers decided to convert existing civil-law contracts into employment contracts even before the inspector took legal action.
The PIP data thus show very clearly that the form of employment should correspond to the actual manner in which the work is performed.
Flexibility cannot mean choosing a contract at random
This is one of the most important takeaways for business owners.
If a company needs flexibility, the solution shouldn’t be to automatically opt for a contract for services simply because it seems simpler or easier to terminate.
First, we need to answer the question of how that person will actually perform their job.
If the way duties are organized exhibits characteristics typical of an employment relationship, the use of a civil law contract may entail the risk that the chosen legal basis will be challenged.
Therefore, companies that need to temporarily increase their workforce should also consider models that allow them to maintain flexibility within clearly defined legal frameworks.
One such option is temporary work.
Temporary Work vs. Outsourcing—Two Models, Two Different Needs
This distinction will become increasingly important in the coming years.
Temporary work is a good solution when a company needs to temporarily expand its team. The employee is hired by a temporary staffing agency and assigned to a client company, which organizes the employee’s daily work in accordance with the rules established for this model.
Process outsourcing addresses a different need. Instead of hiring additional staff for its team, a company outsources the execution of a specific process—or part of it—to an external contractor. The contractor is responsible for organizing both this process and its own team.
That is why there is no single model that works for every situation.
If a company needs additional employees to integrate into its own workforce, temporary employment may be the right solution.
If, on the other hand, you want to transfer responsibility for a specific process to a partner, it’s worth considering process outsourcing.
The key is not to choose the most flexible arrangement, but to choose the one that best fits how the collaboration will actually work.
And where do foreigners fit into all of this?
This is a particularly important aspect of the Polish labor market.
Foreign workers make up a significant portion of the workforce in logistics, manufacturing, and other industries that use flexible employment models.
For a company, however, this means an additional level of responsibility.
In addition to choosing the right employment model, it is important to ensure, among other things, that the employee’s stay is legal, that they are authorized to work, that the terms of employment comply with the relevant documents, and that the legalization processes are completed on time.
Therefore, working with an employment agency should not simply boil down to answering the question:
"How many people can you provide us with?"
It is equally important that:
"How will their legal employment be organized?"
It’s not a choice between “full-time or flexible.” What’s needed is the right employment structure
Discussions about the labor market often boil down to a choice between permanent employment and flexible forms of employment.
In practice, a well-developed hiring strategy can utilize several models at the same time.
A permanent team can be responsible for core competencies and business continuity.
Temporary employment can help address periodic spikes in demand, seasonal fluctuations, employee absences, or the time needed to get new projects up and running.
Process outsourcing, on the other hand, can allow a company to transfer responsibility for a specific area to an external partner.
So it's not about finding a single "best" form of employment.
The goal is to consciously adapt the model to the actual way work is organized.
The labor market demands greater flexibility—the law requires greater precision
And this is exactly where the two most important trends converge.
On the one hand, companies must respond more and more quickly to changes in orders, seasonality, labor shortages, and the unpredictability of the business environment.
On the other hand, the importance of properly classifying forms of employment, ensuring the legal status of foreign workers, and ensuring that documentation accurately reflects the actual nature of the work is growing.
That is why the future of flexible employment does not lie in finding ways to circumvent full-time employment.
On the contrary.
It involves making a conscious choice of the right model—permanent employment, temporary work, or outsourcing—depending on the company’s actual needs.
At the NJOB Group, we operate based on this very approach. Instead of starting with the question, “How many employees do we need?”, it’s best to first determine which operational problem the company wants to solve and which collaboration model is actually the right fit for it.
Because flexibility in the labor market is still needed.
In 2026, however, it must above all be well-designed.