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Summary for: Czechia plans higher hiring quotas for Filipino and Indian workersCzechia plans to increase recruitment quotas for workers from the Philippines and India as employers report that existing limits are falling short of demand, Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček said.
Speaking on the Sorry jako program, Havlíček said modest increases were planned for countries where capacity was insufficient, including the Philippines, India and potentially Kazakhstan. He did not announce final figures.
Havlíček and Labor Minister Aleš Juchelka also plan to visit the Philippines early next year to discuss recruitment. Alongside industrial employers, Czech hospitals and social services are increasingly looking to Filipino professionals to fill vacancies.
Employers push for more places and clearer timelines
Under the Qualified Employee Program, Czechia currently allocates 10,300 places annually for workers from the Philippines. These are divided into monthly limits of approximately 858 places, with unused capacity unavailable for transfer to later months.
Employers exhausted the monthly allocation in July, August and September, the first such consecutive stretch since capacity increased in 2024, according to recruitment company Orienta Czech.
Its managing partner, Tomáš Surka, recommended raising the annual quota to at least 15,000.
Recruitment company GrapeCare said Thursday that the Industry and Trade Ministry had indicated at Brno’s engineering fair that the quota would increase to 12,000 from January. However, the company said monthly limits would remain, without the option to carry unused places forward.
Businesses also complain about lengthy processing and limited information on their position in the application queue.
Havlíček said employers recruit abroad for jobs they cannot fill on the Czech labor market. Filipino employment has already grown substantially: the Labor Office registered 14,923 Filipino employees at the end of March, more than double the number two years earlier and up 42 percent year on year.
Prague hospital prepares for Filipino recruits
Prague’s Thomayer University Hospital expects approximately 50 nurses and other health professionals from the Philippines to arrive toward the end of this year or early next year.
Hospital spokesman Petr Sulek said the recruits have university qualifications and at least two years of experience. The group also includes radiology professionals.
They are currently studying Czech intensively online and will undertake further language training after arriving. The hospital is also arranging accommodation, bank accounts and insurance.
The recruitment drive extends beyond the Philippines. From next year, Czech employers will also be able to recruit qualified workers from Indonesia under a new annual quota initially set at 300, according to labor migration lawyer Petra Silovská.
She said employers recruiting in Indonesia would be able to organize hiring directly, without relying on Czech recruitment agencies.
The proposed Filipino quota increase and the hospital’s preparations illustrate demand across both industry and public services. Final increases for India and any additional countries have yet to be specified.
