Number of foreign workers up by 56,000 in a year

The number of foreign workers is rapidly growing in Lithuania. In a year, their number increased by 56,000 and is now nearing 142,000, show data of the Employment Service.

The majority of foreign workers in Lithuania are third country nationals, their number rose by 52,000 in a year to 131,400. The number of EU citizens working in Lithuania increased by 4,000 to around 10,000.

At the start of 2024, the majority of foreign workers were from Belarus (47,700), up from 30,500 in early 2023. The number of workers from Ukraine stood at 44,800 in 2024 (32,700 in 2023), from Uzbekistan – 6,600 (1,800 in 2023), from Kirgizstan – 5,600 (2,500 in 2023), from Tajikistan – 4,600.

According to the Employment Service, 73,100 workers from third countries are employed in the transport sector, 22,000 in construction and 12,900 in manufacturing.

Meanwhile, nearly 30% of workers from the EU are employed in administration and service sector, 25.2% in construction, 16.1% in manufacturing and 9.1% in transport.

As regards EU workers, the majority of them come to Lithuania from Romania, Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria and Italy.