Falling Roster Is a Huge Task
Meanwhile, Poland’s pool of working-age people will fall by 800,000, seriously affecting who can be recruited. Indeed, more than 40% of companies are already having trouble hiring, making the defense expansion plans more challenging.

And the country’s military modernization could slow if not stall without trained troops and requisite infrastructure, experts said.

Reform and Investment Calls
To address the dearth, experts advocate policy changes to nudge labor into high-need industries, expand vocational training, and tap underutilized groups like students, seniors, and people with disabilities.

They also point out the necessity of sustainable investment in defense, especially in the context of public debt and the constitutional debt level of 60% of GDP looming. The one real hope is that, in the longer run, a combination of automation, firm production, and good examples of public-private collaboration can take root to ensure the growth of the defense industries.