As of the end of February, around 1,004,600 foreigners were employed in Poland, making up 6.6 percent of the total workforce, the Statistics Poland (GUS) agency reported earlier this month.
These foreign workers hailed from over 150 countries, with 68.7 percent coming from Ukraine, Statistics Poland said.
Belarusians account for 11.4 percent of the foreign workforce, followed by Georgians at 2.5 percent, Indians at 1.8 percent, Moldovans at 1.3 percent, and Filipinos at 1 percent.
An estimated 2.5 million foreigners live in Poland, according to a recent study by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE), a Warsaw-based think tank.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of Ukrainians working in the off-the-books tax-evading segment of the economy, according to the Polish Economic Institute.
The trend has gained momentum since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
As of the end of June, over 771,000 Ukrainians were registered with Poland's Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), yet reports from the State Labour Inspectorate (PIP) indicated a rise in illegal employment among Ukrainians, reaching 16 percent in 2023, up from 11 percent the previous year, according to Polish state news agency PAP.
As Poland faces a labour shortage and an aging population, major employer organisations are advocating for "legal, sustainable wage-based immigration" to bridge gaps in the job market.
According to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, many Polish entrepreneurs are worried that stricter immigration policies from the government will make it harder to hire workers.
Few foreign workers in Poland perform highly skilled jobs, according to a report earlier this summer.
(gs)
Source: PAP