Lithuania to facilitate recruitment procedures for foreign workers in certain sectors

Lithuania's government on Wednesday adopted a list of professional occupations in short supply, according to which employment procedures for workers from non-EU countries will be simplified.

A total of 27 professions, mostly engineering, IT and aviation sector, were included into the list, Lithuania's ministry of economy said in its statement.

"Simplified recruitment procedures is one of the measures aimed at helping offset the lack of necessary highly qualified specialists in the state and avoid stagnation of productivity," Mindaugas Sinkevicius, the Baltic country's minister of economy, was quoted as saying in the statement.

Nevertheless, the country's education system should be reformed in order to foster specialists that are highly in need, he added.

The list of occupations in short supply will be applied when the employer plans to hire a high-skilled foreign employee for at least one year. A wage equal to at least 1.5 average statistical country's monthly wage will have to be paid for the employee, the statement reads.

In order to avoid wage dumping, it has been stipulated that a foreigner must be remunerated in the same amount as a citizen working in the corresponding position.

According to the ministry, currently around 300 high-skilled professionals from the third countries are working in Lithuania.

The list of occupations of short supply is based on the data from the main Lithuanian employers' organizations, as well as Lithuanian Labor Exchange and the Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Centre.

Due to high emigration rates, employers in Lithuania have been struggling recently to find suitable professionals, especially in technical occupations. Enditem