Lithuanian businesses need more third-country workers

  • 2021-07-20
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – Lithuanian businesses lack workforce and their representatives have asked the prime minister to allow more workers from third countries to come to Lithuania.

The issue was on Tuesday discussed by representatives of the Lithuanian Business Council and Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte.

Discussions mostly focused on migration and the existing lack of workers, Vidmantas Janulevicius, a member of the Council and president of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, said.

"We mostly discussed the lack of workers, 54,000 vacant workplaces and a paradox situation when we have 112,000 unemployed people, including 68,000 structural unemployed people who cannot find a job for a very long time. We spoke about pay conditions, incentives and ways to find people and retrain them," Janulevicius told BNS.

Raising qualification and retraining those workers who professions that are no longer in demand was also discussed, Janulevicius said, adding that they agreed with the prime minister to hold regular quarterly meetings.

The meeting also touched upon ways to make the business environment more attractive for investors in Lithuania for incoming foreign investors to have certain exceptions.

Moreover, the Lithuanian Business Council proposed deferring the payment of the corporate tax for those investing in high technology, robotization and automation.