1.5 million foreigners worked in Poland in the last quarter of 2021

The number of working foreigners in Poland in the fourth quarter of 2021 was approximately 1.5 million people, as estimated by the National Bank of Poland.

NBP reports that in the fourth quarter of 2021 the number of foreigners for whom the basis for the calculation of contributions to retirement and disability pension insurance was recorded (under an employment relationship and under a mandate or agency contract or other contract for the provision of services, as well as under economic) amounted to 759,000  people, of which approx. 252,000 were people who had been working for less than a year, and 508,000 were long-term workers.

"At the same time, when analyzing the number of foreigners working in Poland, it should be taken into account that some of them do not work legally and they do not appear in the ZUS data (although it seems that the scale of this phenomenon is constantly decreasing). Contracts for specific work are also not recorded in the aforementioned ZUS data. The most popular way to access the Polish labor market is the so-called simplified procedure ("declaration on entrusting work to a foreigner" and a seasonal work permit),” the NBP stated.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, poviat labor offices entered the number of declarations on entrusting work to more than 454,000. At the same time, 12,000 seasonal work permits were issued..

(PAP)