REUTERS
The labor migration rate slowed somewhat in 2019.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) estimates that the number of Ukrainian migrant workers in Poland in 2019 was almost 1 million people.
"In 2019, the number of migrant workers from Ukraine in Poland was estimated at almost 1 million people," the NBU said in its inflation report for January 2020, according to the news outlet hromadske.ua. "Representatives of the occupations that are currently in high demand [in Ukraine] account for a significant share of migrant workers."
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The regulator says that the significant number of migrant workers affects Ukraine's labor market: there is a shortage of specialists with vocational qualifications in the country because a large number of them have chosen to work abroad.
According to NBU estimates, the labor migration rate slowed somewhat in 2019 due to the strengthening of the hryvnia: the growth of Ukrainians' real incomes in the foreign currency equivalent helped to reduce the wage gap with neighboring countries, in particular Poland.
Earlier, the National Bank reported that migrant workers in 2019 transferred about US$12 billion to Ukraine. In 2018, their transfers amounted to US$10.88 billion.
The Cabinet of Ministers reported that about 1.5 million Ukrainians went to live abroad in the first nine months of 2019.