According to the Central Statistical Office (GUS), by the end of December 2024, foreigners accounted for approximately 6.8% of all employed persons in Poland, with their numbers increasing by over 6% in one year, surpassing 1 million people.
Data from June 2025 confirms this trend: the total number of foreign workers in Poland exceeded 1.09 million, marking year-on-year growth.
This indicates that labor migrants are now a permanent feature of the labor market, not a temporary seasonal or post-pandemic phenomenon.
Official data for the first half of 2025 shows how foreign workers are distributed across the Polish economy:
This confirms that migrants are particularly active in sectors reporting chronic labor shortages, especially in production, logistics, and construction operations.
Poland, like many EU countries, faces an aging population and a shrinking share of working-age residents. At the same time, many young Poles still choose to work abroad in Western Europe, further reducing the available workforce—particularly in sectors with physically demanding or mobile jobs.
Additionally, the domestic labor market is characterized by low unemployment and a limited labor “reserve,” meaning only a small fraction of working-age Poles is available to take new jobs.
In this context, labor migration becomes one of the main mechanisms for filling workforce gaps.
Logistics and Transport
Poland is a key logistics hub in Central Europe, with an extensive warehouse network and significant road and rail transit. Market analyses show that this sector experiences the greatest labor shortages—up to 20% of logistics employees in large warehouse centers are foreigners.
The roles with the highest demand include:
Migrants enable logistics companies to maintain operational continuity and meet rapidly growing demand for warehouse services. The vacancy rate in transport and logistics is notably higher than the economy-wide average—about 25% higher than the national average—meaning companies compete harder for workers than in other sectors.
Shortages are driven by factors such as demanding working conditions (e.g., long routes for drivers), low attractiveness of the profession among young workers, and an aging workforce—35% of drivers on international routes are over 50.
Manufacturing and Industry
The industrial sector is the second-largest employer of migrants. Data from 2025 shows that 28% of foreign workers were in industrial processing, many as manual laborers, machine operators, or production staff.
This trend is driven by several factors:
Construction
Construction is another sector with strong labor demand, particularly for general and manual work. Industry estimates suggest a shortage of hundreds of thousands of workers, and migrant employment significantly improves the situation for companies handling infrastructure projects and residential construction.
According to Credit Agricole Bank Polska, over the next two years, Poland’s construction sector could face a shortage of more than 53,000 workers if demand remains high and migration policies restrict foreign labor inflow. This clearly shows the magnitude of workforce gaps that need to be alleviated by labor migration.
Seasonal Work and Other Sectors
Sectors such as agriculture, hospitality, and tourism also rely on migrant labor, particularly for seasonal roles. While their numbers are smaller than in logistics or industry, their contribution is significant during peak periods such as harvests or tourist seasons.
Filling Workforce Gaps
Hiring foreigners allows companies to reduce unfilled vacancies and accelerate order fulfillment. In many firms, migrants account for a significant share of employees, highlighting their growing role in meeting labor demand.
Impact on Competitiveness and Economic Growth
Migrant workers positively affect company competitiveness—reducing wage pressure and enabling flexible responses to demand fluctuations.
They also generate consumption, pay taxes and social contributions, supporting the local economy and the Polish budget. According to estimates from BGK, ZUS, and Demagoga analyses, total revenue from taxes and contributions by migrants, especially from Ukraine, in 2024 was 15–19 billion PLN. Of this, around 3.5–3.8 billion PLN came from health contributions, with the rest from other social contributions and taxes.
These revenues exceeded public benefits received by the group (e.g., 800+ child benefits paid to Ukrainian migrants amounted to around 2.8 billion PLN), meaning migrants are a net positive for the budget.
Not all migrants immediately have the required language skills or professional qualifications, which may affect work efficiency—especially in customer-facing or precise-instruction roles.
Discussions around migration also involve social issues, such as access to public services and impact on local communities. Employers and HR must navigate these challenges with internal communication strategies and inclusive policies.
Long-term demographic projections indicate that labor migration will continue to grow as the local workforce shrinks and the population ages. Many companies already treat hiring foreigners not just as a short-term fix, but as a strategic HR policy for years to come.
Key Takeaways:
