HSBC is not the first company to decide to reduce its operations in Poland. We have been reporting on this worrying trend on FXMAG for months. The situation is, however, becoming increasingly difficult.
“In my opinion, what is happening stems from plans to implement AI-based solutions. It involves, among other things, work that is performed in shared services centers, i.e., the so-called back office, accounting, legal, and similar tasks that, as it turns out, can relatively easily be outsourced to AI tools” – said economist Dr. Iwo Augustyński, labor market expert from the Wrocław University of Economics, in an interview with FXMAG.
Referring to the planned mass layoffs that were already known at the beginning of the year, the expert said that this is just the beginning of a wave that we will see in Poland.
“Data on planned layoffs, including in large employment centers such as Kraków, are things that are just beginning to happen this year. These are caused by the anxieties that are appearing in the labor market” – emphasized Dr. Iwo Augustyński.
Companies are leaving Poland
Kraków is a perfect example of the trend observed in the Polish labor market. HSBC is another company operating in Kraków that has recently decided to reduce its operations in Poland. According to the portal lovekrakow.pl, only from January to April – the first four months of 2026 – 15 companies announced a desire to reduce staff. Layoffs could affect up to 1,317 employees. As “Gazeta Wyborcza” reports, HSBC could lay off a total of 400 people this year. Some people have already lost their jobs. The latest mass layoffs at the Kraków branch of the British company took place in March 2026. At that time 128 people from various departments lost their jobs, including HR, IT, and cybersecurity.
“My department was completely eliminated overnight. People with both two-year and ten-year experience were let go, no difference. There was a lot of tears and stress, because among us there are single mothers and people with high loans” – says one of the dismissed employees quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.
The reason why HSBC is reducing its operations, as well as other companies operating in Poland, including in Kraków, is the rising costs of running a business in our country. Companies choose other directions where they move their operations. Most often these are Asian countries where qualified workers are available, whose wage expectations are significantly lower than in Europe. The same applies to HSBC. The company is moving part of its operations to India.
According to “Gazeta Wyborcza,” employees had earlier noticed signals that the British financial giant might reduce its operations in Poland. As employees reported, it involved, among other things, access to the company’s servers, which increasingly and on a larger scale were being used by employees from India.
Problems in the labor market
HSBC is one of the largest employers in Kraków. At the beginning of 2026, the company employed nearly 6,000 people. Mass layoffs that could affect 400 people will have a significant impact on rising unemployment, which has been steadily increasing in recent months. At the end of 2024, unemployment in the capital of Lesser Poland was 2%, and by the end of March 2026 it had reached 2.7%.
It should be noted that the British company is not the only one laying off employees. Mass layoffs are also carried out in other enterprises across the country.
“We have individual layoff processes in many companies for reasons unrelated to employees, as well as mass layoff processes. This is because companies are constantly cleaning up their structures, making expense adjustments. Business sometimes changes its type of activity. It then looks for new competencies, gives up those it already has. Enterprises also undergo global mergers” – said Dr. Iwona Jaroszewska‑Ignatowska, managing partner at People & Law, in an interview with FXMAG.
The expert emphasizes that mass layoffs are caused by various factors. Among them are the costs of running a business, which are becoming increasingly higher in Poland.
“Some of these layoffs also result from the fact that in some industries we have become an expensive country in terms of costs, including labor costs. This particularly applies to the manufacturing and service center industry. Some production lines and service centers are moved from Poland to other countries. Those that are less costly. In our country over the past years we have seen wage increases and other key costs for entrepreneurs, which had a significant impact on business results. And corporations often make decisions based on Excel table numbers. They look at where it is simply cheaper. Especially if on a given market they can obtain similar quality competencies” – emphasized Dr. Iwona Jaroszewska‑Ignatowska in an interview with FXMAG.
See also: Will unemployment in Poland rise? Expert: “I think it was already good”
