What this means for Ukrainians in Poland and for the labour market in Ukraine
The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy of Poland (MRPiPS) has presented a draft regulation listing 329 professions in 37 basic groups in which there is a staff shortage. The purpose of the document is to speed up procedures for legalising work and to simplify employers' search for employees.
"In these professions, in the first half of 2025 a total of 33,000 unemployed people were registered, while the number of vacancies reached 29,000. In addition, during this period more than 100,000 documents legalising the work of foreigners were issued; this in particular indicates the high and sustained demand from employers for foreign workers in these professions"
— MRPiPS (justification of the draft regulation)
The list includes, among others, engineers (technologists, builders, mechanics, electricians), various categories of medical workers (doctors without completed specialisation, nurses, midwives), IT specialists (application programmers, database developers and administrators), as well as technical and service professions — roofers, plumbers, operators of power equipment, bus and tram drivers.
Procedural detail: the draft regulation is to enter into force 14 days after publication in the Journal of Laws. This means that the changes can begin to take effect fairly quickly — for the Polish labour market and for those already seeking opportunities abroad.
According to official data, at the end of December 2025 almost 1.29 million foreigners were legally working in Poland (a year earlier — 1.19 million). The largest group remains citizens of Ukraine — about 857,000 people.
Expert observation: Ella Libanova, director of the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, emphasizes that Ukraine already has a labour shortage and that in the long term the country will need both the return of some specialists and the introduction of innovative policies to retain and train personnel.
What it offers and what the risks are: for Ukrainian workers — quicker access to employment and legalisation, more stable incomes and the opportunity to build qualifications. For Ukraine — an inflow of foreign currency from labour migration and, at the same time, the risk of temporarily losing part of the workforce in critical sectors. This is not just statistics — it is a matter of labour security, remittances and human resources policy.
Summary: Poland's decision may become a practical resource for many Ukrainians, but at the same time it puts on the agenda the question of how to balance the interests of labour migrants with the needs of the domestic labour market. The ball is now in the court of Ukrainian officials and business — whether they can turn the migration flow into a tool for recovery and development.
