Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, over 21,000 Ukrainians have found employment in Lithuania – half of all the Ukrainian people of working age. Ukrainian war refugees work in all Lithuanian municipalities, with almost one third of them working in Vilnius. In total, around 71,500 Ukrainians have arrived in Lithuania: children, elderly, and people of working age. Since the start of the war, the Employment Service has helped around 11,000 Ukrainians to find jobs, and another 2,200 jobs are on offer. Ukrainians working in Lithuania pay around €5 million a month in taxes.
“Ukrainians work in our country while waiting for a possibility to return to their homeland, and some of them are even successfully setting up businesses and employing not only their people but also Lithuanians. I admire the diligence and strength of Ukrainians and their contribution to the Lithuanian economy. At the same time, I thank our employers who have provided jobs to Ukrainians who have fled the war,” said Monika Navickienė, Minister of Social Security and Labour.
Ukrainians work in all municipalities across the country. The largest number of Ukrainians work in the country’s largest cities: 6,800 Ukrainians work in Vilnius, which is almost one third of local Ukrainian workforce; 2,900 Ukrainians work in Kaunas, which is one seventh of all Ukrainians who have been employed in Lithuania since the beginning of the war in Ukraine; and 2,600 Ukrainians work in Klaipėda.
Most Ukrainians work in manufacturing, construction, transport and warehousing, accommodation and catering services, wholesale and retail trade.
According to the Employment Service, 1.7 thousand or 8% of all employed Ukrainians work highly skilled jobs. They work as business and administrative professionals, health professionals such as doctors, nurses, and veterinarians as well as training professionals, IT professionals, physical engineers, legal, social, and cultural professionals.
The majority of Ukrainians – 14,200 – have found medium-skilled jobs, i.e., 67% of those employed in Lithuania since the outbreak of the hostilities in Ukraine. They work as customer service technicians, salespeople, construction workers, metalworkers, electromechanical and electronic equipment mechanics, stationary equipment and machinery operators, and drivers.
About 5,200 Ukrainians work in low-skilled and unskilled jobs, i.e., about a quarter of the Ukrainian workforce. Most of them work as office and hotel cleaners, kitchen helpers and packers, agricultural and forestry workers, food preparation and auxiliary workers.
”The country’s employers are actively recruiting Ukrainians. When registering vacancies on the Employment Service platform, they indicate that they would accept Ukrainians for the positions offered. At the moment, they can choose from more than 2,200 job offers,” says Gytis Darulis, Deputy Director of the Employment Service.
