Central Europe scrambles to fill blue-collar jobs left by Ukrainians returning home

The exodus of Ukrainian workers going back to defend their homeland has created a labor shortage at the central European construction sites, factories and warehouses many were employed at.

The resulting labor shortage created by departing Ukrainian workers has led to rising costs and delays in manufacturing orders and construction work in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to executives, recruiters, industry groups and economists interviewed by Reuters.

Industrial production contributes to 30% of the Czech Republic’s GDP and 25% of Poland’s, making them the two most industrialized nations in Europe. The region is less automated than more developed European countries, like Germany, meaning it relies on manual labor more.

Ukrainians were the largest group of foreign workers, drawn by wages higher than back home and the easing of visa requirements. Poland and the Czech Republic hosted about 600,000 and over 200,000 Ukrainian workers respectively, according to trade groups – before the Russian invasion.

About 150,000 Ukrainian workers, mostly men, have left Poland since the war began on Feb. 24, said the Employers of Poland trade group, which represents 19,000 companies.

"The loss of Ukrainian workers has deepened the problems companies are facing," Radek Spicar, vice president of the Czech Federation of Industry, told Reuters.

"Companies say they can't cover all the demand from business partners: they deliver with delays and pay penalties."

A Polish tram and railway line builder said that one of their subcontractors recently failed to complete work because almost all of its 30 Ukrainian workers had left.

In exchange, both countries have seen a huge influx of Ukrainian refugees, who are mostly women and children ill-suited for the physically demanding jobs left open in construction, manufacturing and foundries. There are also legal limits on how much female workers are allowed to lift.

Central European employers have had to get creative. One Polish staffing firm said their client companies were shifting men to more physically demanding jobs and hiring Ukrainian refugee women for logistics work, like driving forklifts.

Recruiters looking to Asian countries, like Mongolia and the Philippines, for workers are encountering language barriers and visa issues they do not have with their neighbors in Europe.

Economists said the loss of Ukrainian workers would definitely hurt economies already struggling with soaring costs of energy and materials due to the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and supply chain snarls, but could not yet quantify its scale.