Several Czech ministries are advocating for the issuance of work visas to Ukrainians
As Radio Prague notes, the Czech Republic has been experiencing a critical shortage of labor for several years, with currently about 325,000 unfilled vacancies on the labor market. About 57,000 of these vacancies are in agriculture, forestry, the food industry, and related sectors of the economy.
The highest demand is currently for equipment maintenance technicians, auxiliary personnel for work in agriculture, fish farming, and the food industry, as well as mechanics and equipment repairers, according to the material submitted by Czech agencies for consideration by the cabinet. According to representatives of the ministries, 125 work visas could be issued to Ukrainian citizens monthly, and up to 1,500 per year. The documentation should be handled by the embassy of the Czech Republic in Kyiv.
As further stated in the document, "the employer of Ukrainians in such a case would not be any employment agency, but exclusively an entity in the agricultural production, food industry, or forestry sector. The adopted directive should be in effect until the end of 2022, with an annual analysis of the effectiveness of this measure and the situation on the domestic labor market."
Thus, in 1990, 58,000 employees were permanently employed in the Czech forestry sector, while in 2018, according to the state enterprise "Forests of the Czech Republic," only 13,000 workers. The rest work in the forestry industry as individual entrepreneurs.