Czechia has experienced a significant surge in the number of foreigners working in the country. The authorities have revealed that more than 82,300 foreign workers were registered at the end of 2023.
According to the data provided by the labour office of Czechia, the number of foreign workers in the country reached a total of 823,945 in December of last year, 30,700 more than in 2022. This marks a 2.5 times increase from the numbers recorded in 2015, with the majority of the increase being attributed to arrivals from Ukraine.
The total number of people employed in the country, including Czech nationals and foreigners, was around 4.23 million in the first three quarters of 2023. Of the foreign workers, 409,800 were from other European Union countries, while 285,545 were from Ukraine, making up the largest group of foreign workers in the country.
Ukrainians accounted for the largest group of foreign workers in Czechia, with 149,000 women and the remaining being men. Slovaks made up the latest group of EU nationals working in Czechia, with 216,000 of them employed in the country at the end of last year.
Marian Jurečka, the Minister of Labour of Czechia, emphasized that the country is aging and will increasingly need foreign workers to address labor shortages. To tackle these shortages, Czechia plans to attract workers from Portugal and Spain, especially those in the fields of IT and research.
In January of this year, Minister Jurečka announced the country’s intention to target qualified workers from these two countries to bring more skilled workers to Czechia. This move is expected to help the country deal with the current and anticipated shortages in various sectors.
Overall, Czechia’s increasing reliance on foreign workers reflects the broader demographic and labor market trends that are shaping the country’s workforce. As the country continues to address these challenges, it is likely to see further changes in its labor force composition in the coming years.
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