Analytics, Baltic, Investments, Labour-market, Latvia, Markets and Companies

The foreign investors council believes Latvia should develop a smart immigration policy, attracting the missing specialists from the third countries. "Countries are competing not only for investments, but also for laborforce. It is very important for Latvia, considering our demographic situation. Several business representatives have turned to the council, telling about their problems when trying to employ people from the third countries. This policy would define what specialists we welcome from the third countries," said Jaksona.

She also said that the smart immigration policy would also refer to students because at present it is difficult for students from the third countries to get a residence permit, but students are also able to join the labor market.

As reported, SEB Banka said in its latest Baltic CFO Outlook that the Latvian state should consider guest workers as a solution to the problem of labor shortage. The survey showed growing demand for labor force in all three Baltic states. In a similar survey last year 21% of chief financial officers (CFOs) in Latvia predicted increased demand for labor but this year their number has grown to 25%. In Estonia, it was 26% in 2015 and 33% this year, and in Lithuania the respective figures were 29% in 2015 and 43% in 2016.

Svens Dinsdorfs, Director of IT wholesaler Elko Grupa, said that for now the question about bringing in guest workers was sort of a taboo and urged politicians to be more active in tackling the subject. "Companies themselves should be more active and initiate a wider debate as it is clear that soon there will be a physical shortage of labor. Elko Grupa once considered the option of brining in labor from other countries but we realized that the procedure was complicated. We think that companies should have the opportunity to hire guest workers, and the state must provide an appropriate mechanism," he said.

Normunds Stanevics, Vice President of Food Union dairy group, also supported the idea about letting companies to hire guest workers because it would solve the problems related to shortage of both highly-skilled and low-skilled workers. "This is a matter of political will. It is obvious that the Latvian society is not quite ready for this but we have to work with politicians to create a legislative framework and we have to speak to friends, colleagues and acquaintances to explain the importance of the society integration in increasing the overall prosperity level," he said.