Ukrainians leave Poland for the West. They don't want to wait for economy's recovery

“The slowdown on the labor market in Poland and high inflation may have prompted some refugees from Ukraine to leave for the West, mainly to Germany and Canada.

  Ukrainians are no longer waiting in line for work, says Krzysztof Inglot, an expert and founder of the Personnel Service employment agency, which specializes in recruiting employees from abroad, mainly from Ukraine. As he admits, in the current recovery on the labor market, which he has been observing since May, he was surprised by the low supply of workers from Ukraine. "Usually, they waited for a flood of offers during this period, but something changed this time," assesses Inglot.

According to him, the decreasing supply of workers from Ukraine is visible in all industries. The smallest problem is in odd jobs, especially those available to women. On the other hand, there has been a deficit of men from Ukraine.

Will Moroccans pick strawberries in Poland? Polish fruit producers are also nervously looking for employees in Nepal, Indonesia and other countries in Asia and even Africa.

Too few selections

According to the Personnel Service expert, the current deficit of employees from Ukraine is caused by a clearly noticeable slowdown in the economy on the labor market. This was well demonstrated by the report of the Polish HR Forum for the first quarter of this year, recently published in Rzeczpospolita, when a total of 235,000 people were employed. temporary workers - more than 6 percent. decrease compared to the beginning of 2022

Although almost eight out of ten newcomers from Ukraine work, and most are satisfied with their work in our country, the mismatch of their qualifications remains a challenge, especially among refugees.

Even more, by 8 percent. – up to 43 thousand – the number of hours worked in terms of full time equivalents (FTE) has decreased. The slowdown in the industry, which is the main recipient of temporary work services, contributed to this. – Companies reduce costs, which also reduces employment, and in the first place they give up temporary employees – comments Anna Wicha, president of PFHR.Their number fell by 2.9 percent, and in April by 6.4 percent year on year.

According to Krzysztof Inglot, employees from Ukraine, who in the first months of this year did not see such a large selection of job offers as before, started looking for work in other countries, especially in Western Europe and Canada.

Fall in social security system (ZUS)

In the first quarter of this year, According to the "Barometer of the Polish Labor Market" study by Personnel Service, Poland turned out to be the preferred country of economic migration for 20 percent. It was followed by Canada and the USA with the same share of indications, slightly ahead of Germany (16%).

According to German statistics, over one million (1.07 million) war refugees from Ukraine are already registered there. This is a similar number as in Poland, where at the end of March less than one million Ukrainians used temporary protection (confirmed by a PESEL number with UKR status). Alarming recently about the exploitation of seasonal workers from Central and Eastern Europe, the German media pointed out that last year, Ukrainians came to German fields and plantations.

Migrants from other countries cannot count on such good conditions of stay in Poland as newcomers from Ukraine. And this - apart from cultural proximity - affects their high professional activity on the Vistula.

“Employees from Ukraine migrate all over Europe because they can, and hourly rates are higher not only in Germany, but even in the Czech Republic, so you don't have to go far from Poland,” notes Anna Dzhobolda, director of the international recruitment department at the Gremi Personal employment agency. It also now has a labor shortage, although this is mainly due to the increased, seasonal demand for employees.

A recent study by the Gremi Personal Analytical Center and the Łódź Special Economic Zone showed that most of the companies operating there increased the share of Ukrainians among employees, and only 5 percent recorded their outflow. This outflow is indicated by the April ZUS data. While the total number of foreigners in ZUS registers increased to a record 1.078 million, employees from Ukraine - for the first time before the period of seasonal work - decreased slightly (by 1.1 thousand people).

Permanent stay overseas

Both the Personnel Service and EWL surveys, as well as the employment agencies themselves, assess that the main advantage of staying and working in Poland for Ukrainians is the geographical and cultural proximity of our country. According to Anna Dzhobolda, due to cultural closeness, Ukrainians feel better at working among Poles. The more that the lesser barrier is the lack of knowledge of the language. The presence of family and friends who have been living and working here for a long time is also significant.

Already 74 thousand. of foreigners stay in Poland with a visa from the program that helps us become a global IT hub.

Large Ukrainian Diaspora is also a factor that increases the willingness to go to Canada, where the number of refugees and migrants from Ukraine has been growing rapidly in recent months. According to the Canadian service CTV News, by mid-March this year. 190,000 came to Canada Ukrainians on the basis of a special migration program and a three-year Emergency visa issued to them, which has already been granted to over 610,000. citizens of Ukraine. Their number may increase because the federal government extended the possibility of applying for these visas (until mid-July this year), and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced that Ukrainians who came under a special migration program will be able to apply for permanent residence in Canada.

– If the deficits of employees from Ukraine visible in May continue or deepen in the coming months, this may generate greater wage pressure, especially in the lowest paid professions – predicts Krzysztof Inglot."