The Pomeranian job market has been doing well for years, but the year 2018 brought it to a new phase. The continuing upward trend has led to large reinvestments, which means an employment increase in companies already present in Tricity. It gives 4,000 more jobs created solely in the Business Services Sector.
– These five thousand jobs are 20 percent more than last year. It gave us another record in the employment’s growth – says Wojciech Tyborowski, director of Invest in Pomerania, a non-profit initiative offering comprehensive services for foreign investments.
At the beginning of the year, the Tricity’s development was confirmed by the award granted during the “CEE Shared Services and Outsourcing Awards”. Tricity – for the second time in a row – was recognized as the most dynamically developing metropolis in Poland when it comes to the business services sector.
In 2018, Pomerania also established its leading position among the regions in terms of relative increase in employment, as the number of economically active persons exceeded one million. Maintaining the first place was also backed by the decrease in the unemployment rate, which in the fourth quarter of 2018 amounted to 4.8 percent in the entire voivodship.
Reinvestments
In the first half of 2018, Swarovski GBS and Intel Technology expanded their staff. Also reinvestments by Arla Foods Polska and PwC Advisory Center were announced, which in 2018 enlarged their centers by 100 and 300 people respectively. In the case of PwC, the extension of staff resulted from the increased prestige of the entire center, called the Financial Crime Unit. The Gdańsk office is the fourth PwC facility of its kind in the world.
New companies in the sector
The Tricity BSS sector saw the arrival of two new companies: Gibbs Hybrid, and Diverse Consulting Group, that offer advanced recruitment processes. They show the sector the way forward due to the high complexity of their services.
– Faced with challenges resulting from constant demand and an insufficient number of employees, companies are forced to become more creative and unconventional in order to get qualified persponnel – says Małgorzata Hoppe from Diverse Consulting Group.
The sector has been joined by IT companies such as HiQ and Qlock. The first of them deals with, among others, automation of business processes, the other one cooperates with the giants in the development industry.
What’s up in the industrial sector?
There is also many successes to be celebrated inthe industrial sector. The largest of them is Northvolt – a battery module andenergy storage systems factory, “installed” in Pomerania at anexpress pace of 6 months. Gdańsk’s Northvolt is not only a state-of-the-artproduction facility, but also a R & D center. Establishment of the facility results from the growing demand for mobile energy sources.
In addition to Northvolt, there are 4 investments in the industrial sector within a large cross-section of branches. Andiamo, a global research and development center using advanced technology todesign orthopedic prostheses or Ecoride, the producer of ecological electricbikes, decided to go to Pomerania.
Summarizing, in 2018, Invest in Pomerania finished 13 projects, out of which over 1000 jobs were created.
Forecast for 2019?
The number of companies present in Pomerania is reflected in the vertical and horizontal diversity of job offers. This means that the market is not only growing but also evolving, offering increasingly demanding positions. This gives a wide range of jobs, which correspond to the qualifications of a growing range of people. Among other things, that’s why so many people decide to move to the Tricity.
Epam, Sii and Amazon have already declared development plans for 2019. Smaller companies, such as the mentioned HiQ, also promise to double or even triple the number of employees.
– Pomeranian economy and market in 2019 poses different challenges and tasks than a few years ago – says Bartosz Wojtasiak, project manager at Invest in Pomerania – support must be tailored to the needs of time. We do not expect a lot of big investments, we expect rather small and medium-sized companies with an unconventional portfolio of services. Two ofthem will be announced already in the second quarter of this year.
