Ukrainians remain a key foreign workforce for the Polish economy: as of the end of January 2026, 757,700 Ukrainian citizens were officially employed in the country, accounting for nearly 68% of all employed foreigners, according to the analytical center of the international recruitment company Gremi Personal, citing Poland’s Central Statistical Office (GUS).
The total number of foreign workers exceeded 1.1 million—a 7.1% increase from the previous year. “More than a million foreign workers is no longer a response to a temporary labor shortage, but a structural change in the Polish economy. Businesses have grown accustomed to operating in conditions where it is impossible to ensure the normal functioning of manufacturing, logistics, construction, the service sector, and agriculture without foreign workers,” notes Yevhen Kirichenko, founder of Gremi Personal.
According to him, this trend will have long-term consequences for the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine.
“Once the war ends, Ukraine will find itself in a situation where it will have to simultaneously rebuild its economy, implement large-scale infrastructure projects, and compensate for demographic losses. However, at the same time, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and other countries will also need workers. In effect, competition for the same workforce will begin,” Kirichenko believes.
Analysts emphasize that Ukrainians are already well-integrated into the European labor market, know the languages, have work experience, and do not require a long adaptation period. For employers, this means lower integration costs compared to hiring workers from more distant countries. At the same time, they also point out that Ukraine has so far had virtually no discussion on how to compensate for a potential labor shortage, and if, after the war, a significant portion of the population chooses to work abroad, the country will face a labor shortage precisely when workers are needed most for economic recovery.
According to Serbian Economist, Budva’s tourism industry will face a shortage of at least 5,000 seasonal workers during the 2026 summer season, the Investitor.me portal reported, citing Alexander Jovanovic, chairman of the Budva Restaurant Association. According to him, the problem of securing seasonal labor remains chronic for the resort, as interest from workers in Montenegro is declining.
The country’s largest hotel company—the largely state-owned Hotelska grupa Budvanska rivijera—has already begun recruiting staff for the summer and estimates its own need at approximately 600 seasonal workers. Through the employment service, the company has posted dozens of job openings, including waiters, cooks, bartenders, bakers, lifeguards, beach and pool attendants, housekeeping staff, and support personnel.
Budvanska rivijera stated that all seasonal workers are provided with housing and three meals a day, and that it continues to collaborate with agencies, vocational schools, and universities to attract students and trainees during the peak season—in July and August. At the same time, the company acknowledges that it has to seek new sources of recruitment outside the country.
Employers in Budva are increasingly hiring workers from Asia. Jovanović himself attributes the labor shortage in part to the fact that some Montenegrins prefer to leave for seasonal work in other tourist destinations, primarily in the EU and neighboring Croatia.
Montenegro’s growing dependence on foreign labor is also confirmed by broader statistics. In 2025, the country issued 40,567 temporary residence and work permits to foreigners, which is 6.7% more than in 2024. Permits were granted to citizens of 107 countries, with the largest groups consisting of workers from Turkey, Serbia,
Russia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nepal, North Macedonia, and India.
This situation indicates that, as the summer season approaches, Montenegro is becoming increasingly dependent on the external labor market, and the labor shortage in tourism is no longer a local problem for individual hotels but a systemic constraint affecting the entire coast.
