Approximately 18.4% of companies in Poland currently employ foreign workers and this figure is expected to increase further in the next year, according to the Labour Market Barometer 2024 by Gi Group Holding, published in Polskie Forum HR.

Anna Wesołowska, managing director of Gi Group Poland, said, “The low unemployment rate and labour shortage mean that the share of foreigners in the total number of people working in Poland is growing. While ten years ago their number did not exceed 100,000, i.e. 1% of all those insured in ZUS (Social Insurance Institution), at the end of last year this percentage amounted to nearly 7%, which constituted 1.13 million employees.”

According to the Barometer, foreign workers are employed primarily by large enterprises (26.5%), mainly from the industrial sector (27.3%) and the services sector (20.3%). The least interest in employing foreign workers was seen in small companies (90% do not employ foreigners) and in the public sector (86.2%).

The study also showed that the vast majority of foreigners working in Poland are Ukrainians (83%), followed by citizens of the former Eastern Bloc (Belarus, Armenia, Uzbekistan and others, approximately 25.5%) and other European countries, approximately 24.5%. Foreign workers from further countries constitute 14.9%.

The study showed that 18% of businesses that plan to employ foreign workers want to attract Ukrainians, 8% want to attract workers from other European countries, 7.3% from the countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

Although the largest increase in foreign workers in recent years has been among Ukrainian citizens, their number is still insufficient to fill the staffing gap, the study noted. At the same time, the rising cost of living and the large number of job offers make their expectations regarding employment conditions higher.

“Poland is increasingly becoming only a transit country for them, they take up work here waiting for better professional and earning opportunities in the West,” the study stated. “The problem with the lack of Ukrainians in Poland is becoming visible especially in small towns, where they constitute a significant part of the total workforce.”

Companies are fighting for Ukrainian employees by offering benefits, including subsidies for meals, transport and accommodation. However, this is not enough, which is why they are increasingly willing to employ migrants from more distant countries.

Meanwhile, when it comes to employers, the biggest challenges cited are difficulties in integrating employees from other countries with the Polish workforce (65.3% of responses), language barriers (63.1%) and cultural differences (44.7%).