Almost half of domestic companies in Poland face problems finding new employees, prompting many of them to reduce new investment, according to data from Polish staffing group Work Service.

Among the reasons for the recruitment difficulties, include the shortage of the candidates, excessive financial expectations from candidates and insufficient competence from the candidates.

Per data from Work Service, labour shortages had prompted 16.4% of the companies to reduce new investment, which is 3.6% higher than a year ago.

“For over a year almost every second company (approximately 50%) in Poland has declared issues with attracting new employees,” Work Service said.

The company added that two years ago 35% of surveyed companies faced labour shortages.

“Long term effects of this phenomenon are very worrying, considering that there are huge demographic problems ahead of us,” Work Service Chief Executive Maciej Witucki said.

According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate in Poland stood at 3.7% in June 2018.