Immigrants to fill gaps in Polish labour market

Research carried out by Workservice shows that 12% of polish companies declared they are looking to employ foreigners. Sixty percent declared that hiring employees with different cultural backgrounds is not an issue.

Monika Zaręba, expert on the labour market from the Polish Employers Association confirmed that due to shortages of suitably qualified Polish employees and their unwillingness to carry out certain types of jobs more and more polish companies want to hire immigrants.

The biggest gaps are reported in low skilled physical jobs and IT. Staff shortages are mostly filled with workers from behind eastern borders. More than 40 000 work permits were issued (more than 60% of them for residents of Ukraine) in 2014. The influx of migrant workers does not seem to worry Poles. Krzysztof Inglot, managing partner at Workservice, notes that polish entrepreneurs report an increasing demand for employees and unemployment has been steadily decreasing over the past two years mostly due to high number of Poles migrating to UK, Netherlands, France and Germany.