The year 2023 was groundbreaking in terms of the presence of Ukrainian citizens in Poland. There was a strong stabilization and slowdown in the influx of new Ukrainians who had been bolstering the Polish labor market. This is largely due to the wartime situation of our eastern neighbor. Ukraine is undergoing military mobilization, which includes men of working age. They are not allowed to leave their country—they must stay ready to join the army to repel the Russian aggressor if necessary. This factor somewhat influences the Polish labor market as well. Last year, Poland recorded a nearly 3% increase in the number of Ukrainian citizens in the Social Insurance Institution’s (ZUS) registers—where individuals contributing to social insurance through legal employment in Poland are recorded. Meanwhile, the pool of other non-Ukrainian foreigners grew much faster.
“We have seen a greater influx of workers from another eastern neighbor, Belarus. More Belarusians entered the Social Insurance Institution’s registers last year than Ukrainians,” said Andrzej Kubisiak, Deputy Director of the Polish Economic Institute, to eNewsroom.pl. “This does not change the fact that Ukrainians still dominate the foreigner registers. About two-thirds of those in the registers are Ukrainian citizens. However, their share is decreasing every month. The beginning of this year continued last year’s trends, with very slight changes. We can expect no major revolution this year, despite the likely increase in demand for workers with the arrival of spring and rising tensions in the Polish labor market. There is still a shortage of human resources to meet the growing demand due to the declining pool of working-age people in our country. We will not be able to fill this gap with foreigners—especially Ukrainian citizens—as we have in recent years,” Kubisiak analyzes.
