Ukrainians looking for work in Poland

Photo: Glowimages

In the first half of this year, Polish enterprises offered as many as 191,000 jobs to citizens of east European countries, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy reported bythe Rzeczpospolita daily.

The figure is one of the highest since Poland introduced a procedure that facilitates the temporary employment of some workers from outside the EU. In January-June 2013 the number of such job offers was 146,3000. A year earlier it was 160,300.

So far the record year was 2007, when 260,000 employees from the east came to work in Poland. With the high numbers in H1, this year can prove the next record-breaker.

Out of the total figure in January-June 2014, the vast majority of employees (183,000) came from Ukraine. Many of them started looking for jobs in Poland after the outbreak of a military conflict on the territory of their country. A depreciating hryvnia is another factor, not without link to the first one.

Other workers came from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Russia, the ministry's data show.

Since 2011 Polish businesses are allowed to hire workers from the above countries for up to six months even if they had not obtained an employment permit first. The employer only has to notify authorities about the contract. (kw/pg)