In the first quarter of 2012, turnover in the Polish staffing industry reached a record level and was up +7% to €118 million from €113 million a year ago, reports the Polish association of temporary employment agencies, Polish HR Forum.

The third and fourth quarter in 2011 saw the strongest growth in the staffing sector, both generating sales of €128 million.

Turnover for temporary staffing in the first quarter of 2012 amounted to €106.5 million and, when compared to the same quarter last year, this was up by +5%. But quarter-on-quarter, temporary staffing revenue declined by -8%.

Polish HR Forum said that the market for temporary staffing in Poland is now starting to stabilise again after it experienced a slowdown in 2009 and 2010 due to the global economic crisis.

Staffing firms that are members of the association generate around 90% of revenue from temporary staffing alone as temporary labour forms a significant part of the Polish job market.

In the first quarter, the sectors with the highest turnover in temporary staffing include the automotive sector (17%), followed by the machine industry (10%) and the food industry (7%).

It was also reported that the number of temporary employees in the first quarter of 2012 has increased by +2.58% year-on-year. “We can assume that temporary work is becoming an increasingly popular solution, and more and more companies in Poland decide to use it,” the association said.

Temporary hours worked in the first quarter came to 20.4 million and the association noted that wages for temporary employees in the country have also increased.

But looking ahead, President of the association, Anna Wicha, said that overall job prospects for the coming year are not as good as expected as employers are becoming more cautious about hiring and some key industries still see stagnation.

The report also identified that a majority of people taking up temporary work in Poland are under 26 years old and made up around 42% of the temporary labour workforce in the first quarter. But those aged between 26 and 50 are still the largest group of temporary workers (49%) while those over 50 only made up 9% of the temporary labour workforce.

In the first quarter of 2012, women represented 52% the temporary staffing market, an increase of +5% from a year ago. This is a good sign, the association said, as the number of inactive women in the Polish labour market is shrinking.

“It is not surprising that women are increasingly using this form of [temporary] employment, to combine family commitments with work responsibilities,” the association said. Last year men still made up 53% of the temporary labour force but the situation has been reversed in the first quarter this year.

To read the full report, in Polish, click here.