A third of Polish companies have declared their readiness to hire Ukrainian refugees, according to a survey conducted by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).
A total of 31 percent of respondents indicated their desire to offer employment opportunities to refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with large and medium-sized businesses more willing to offer work (40 percent) than small businesses (23 percent).
PIE’s estimates show that over 250,000 women can expect to get a job in Poland, with most potential work offers coming from sectors of industrial production, housing, and services.
Employment of Ukrainian refugees is planned mostly by the producers of food products, beverages, textiles, electronics and furniture, and in nearly one in three service companies.
“Immigrants can seek jobs in the hospitality sector, personal service activities; for instance hairdressers, cosmetologists, as well as in companies providing IT services,” pointed out Katarzyna Dębkowska, the head of the economic foresight team of PIE.
PIE’s survey also shows that 16 percent of trading companies would consider employing the refugees, with wholesalers more likely to offer work than retailers.
“Lower willingness of the trading sector to employ foreigners may be explained with the sector’s need for higher competencies associated with consultancy. In many companies, personal contact with the client is important, although it requires good knowledge of the assortment and of the Polish language,” explained Dębkowska. She added that the language barrier may make it hard for the Ukrainians to get a job in a direct consumer service.
One in twenty surveyed companies plans to employ Polish workers only with 12 percent of companies holding the opinion that the professional profiles of the migrants does not “fit their recruitment plans.”
The results of the survey of entrepreneurs, including their plans regarding employment of new workers in the next three months, allowed for an estimate of the number of vacancies planned in various sectors. “We estimated the total number of vacancies that can be expected in the next three months in Poland, basing on the survey,” said Dębkowska.
According to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), Poland has taken in over 2.5 million refugees from Ukraine. Of those, more than 1.5 million remain in Poland, mostly women and children.
