The number of employees from Ukraine in the Czech Republic has continued to grow in the last two years, despite covid restrictions. From December 2019 until the end of last year, it rose by 35 percent. About 51,000 Ukrainian workers were added to the companies. In total, labor offices registered over 195,100 in December, and 3,400 more in January this year. Ukrainians make up more than a quarter of the foreign workforce in the Czech Republic. This follows from statistics on the employment of foreigners, which are published by the Directorate of the Labor Office. According to available data, roughly one in 20 employees in the country comes from Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, people from Ukraine make up 30 percent of foreigners who live permanently or temporarily in the Czech Republic. In recent years, the number of Ukrainians and temporary residents has risen sharply. It has risen more than three times in the last five years. In the last two covid years, more than 50,500 temporary Ukrainian citizens have been added to the Czech Republic. At the end of 2017, 34,000 people from Ukraine lived temporarily in the country, two years later 58,600 and at the end of last January 106,100. This is 28,900 more year-on-year.
The number of Ukrainian citizens who are allowed to stay in the Czech Republic is also gradually increasing. At the end of last year, 90,800 Ukrainian immigrants had a permanent residence permit. There have been 3,800 more of them in the last two years. Five years ago, 83,500 people from Ukraine had a permanent residence in the Czech Republic.
The influx of labor from Ukraine has not stopped even the covid epidemic. At the end of 2019, 144,100 Ukrainian migrants were employed in the Czech Republic. In the first year of the year, the number rose by 11 percent. Last year, it grew by 22 percent year on year.
The companies employed the most Ukrainian forces last October. There were almost 218,300 of them. 90,200 Ukrainian women and 128,000 men went to work in the Czech Republic. Three out of ten foreign workers came from Ukraine. By the end of the year, the number had dropped. A total of 23,200 Ukrainian employees left the Czech labor market in November and December.
In December 2017, the employment offices registered 81,700 employed people from Ukraine. It was less than a fifth of foreign employees. The number of Ukrainian workers has thus risen about 2.4 times by January this year.
Economists and employers identify labor shortages as the biggest obstacle to economic growth in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic has the lowest unemployment rate in the EU. According to experts, it has already reached the limit of natural unemployment and there are no free workers in the country. Entrepreneurs therefore call for simplification of foreigners’ access to the Czech labor market. The Confederation of Industry and Transport stated that it wanted to “grasp” the employment of migrants “and help foreigners to adapt to conditions in the country. The unions do not agree with bringing in forces from abroad. According to the leaders, there are low earnings behind the vacant positions. If companies picked them up, Czechs would be interested in jobs, trade unions are convinced.
The number of people from Ukraine with a residence permit and the number of Ukrainian employees at the end of each year
Period Number of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic Number of Ukrainian employees
December 2017 117,480 81,689
December 2018 131,709 121,085
December 2019 145,518 144,114
December 2020 165,654 159,468
December 2021 196,875 195,116
Source: Labor Office statistics, Ministry of the Interior statistics and CTK
