Central and Eastern Europe Job Sites and Work Rights

Every country in this directory is an EU member, so citizens of the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland can take a job in any of them without a permit, and non-EU workers can use the EU Blue Card alongside national permits. Online hiring is concentrated in a few national boards, and one company runs many of them: Finland’s Alma Career operates the leading portals in Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia and the Baltic states. Poland’s market is the largest, with 387,000 job offers published on Pracuj.pl in the first half of 2026, according to the company’s own report.

This directory covers seven boards in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Estonia and Croatia, with notes on the sister sites in Latvia and Lithuania. It excludes agencies that charge candidates and boards whose sites could not be checked. Each site was opened on 7 November 2026; listing counts are what each site displayed that day or what its operator has published. Sites that did not state whether job seekers pay are marked as not stating it.

Who can work where

All 11 countries below are in the EU and the EU Blue Card system, so the rules for EU citizens are the same everywhere: no permit needed. The differences are in how each country handles workers from outside the EU and how long it has been in the EU. Ukrainians form a third group: about 961,000 held temporary protection in Poland and 380,000 in Czechia as of March 2026, according to EU figures reported by the Kyiv Post, and that status includes the right to work.

Country	In the EU since	EU, EEA and Swiss citizens	Others
Poland	2004	Free to work	EU Blue Card, work permit or declaration, all filed online since June 2025
Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia	2004	Free to work	EU Blue Card or national permits
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania	2004	Free to work	EU Blue Card or national permits
Romania, Bulgaria	2007	Free to work	EU Blue Card or national permits
Croatia	2013	Free to work	EU Blue Card or national permits

Poland changed its rules most recently. Since 1 June 2025, applications to employ foreigners must be filed online at praca.gov.pl, the labor market test is gone for work permits and Blue Cards, and fines for illegal employment run from PLN 3,000 to PLN 50,000, according to the law firm Rödl & Partner. The same law ended the right to work on several short-stay visa types, so holders of visitor or transit visas can no longer be employed legally.

Poland, Czechia and Slovakia: the largest boards

Poland is the region’s biggest labor market, with a board run by a Warsaw-listed company, while Czechia’s and Slovakia’s leading boards both belong to Alma Career. Czech and Slovak are close enough that Profesia offers a Czech interface, and Jobs.cz runs an English version.

Pracuj.pl

Pracuj.pl, run by the Warsaw-listed Grupa Pracuj, is Poland’s main board for specialist and office jobs. It published 387,000 job offers in the first half of 2026, slightly down from 395,000 a year earlier, and had a record of about 62,000 active employer clients. The site did not load for automated checks on 7 November 2026, so current listing counts and fee statements were not verified.

Strength: the largest published volume of specialist jobs in the region.
Strength: regular public data on the Polish job market.
Weakness: the homepage could not be checked for this directory.

Jobs.cz

Jobs.cz is a leading Czech job portal and part of the Alma Career group, with Czech and English versions. On the day checked, its category counts added up to about 32,600, with sales the largest category at 3,598; a job can appear in more than one category, so that is an upper estimate. Employers included the energy group ČEZ and the insurer Generali. The homepage does not state fees for job seekers.

Strength: English interface and a large employer base.
Weakness: no single job total on the homepage.

Profesia

Profesia is Slovakia’s main job portal, also in the Alma Career group, with an interface in Slovak, Czech, English, German and Hungarian. On the day checked it listed 4,911 jobs in Bratislava and about 16,460 across all regions and abroad, from 4,854 advertising companies. It also lists 618 jobs abroad. The homepage does not state fees for job seekers.

Strength: five interface languages.
Strength: regional counts that show where hiring is concentrated.
Weakness: regional counts may overlap.

Hungary and Romania: national boards in local languages

Hungary’s and Romania’s main boards are built for local job seekers, and Hungary’s offers an English interface while Romania’s does not. Romania’s other large board, eJobs, could not be checked for this directory.

Profession.hu

Profession.hu describes itself as Hungary’s most visited job portal and listed 17,418 current jobs from more than 4,000 employers on the day checked. The site runs in Hungarian and English and offers a free CV builder, company reviews and a salary calculator. A paid Premium subscription is mentioned, without a price on the homepage.

Strength: English interface and a published job count.
Weakness: paid Premium features are promoted alongside free search.

BestJobs

BestJobs is a Romanian job board run by BestJobs Recrutare SA, with listings in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Brașov and other cities plus some jobs abroad. On the day checked, featured listings included roles requiring Polish, Czech or Slovak, or Spanish. The site is in Romanian and shows no total job count or fee statement.

Strength: language-skill roles for applicants who speak other European languages.
Weakness: Romanian interface and no published total.

The Baltics and Croatia: Alma Career’s smaller markets

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Croatia are small labor markets where one board dominates each country. In the Baltics, Russian is still asked for in some roles, and Estonian boards offer filters for it.

CV.ee and its Baltic sister sites

CV.ee is an Estonian job portal in the Alma Career group, with an English interface. It showed 3,337 job ads on the day checked, though its own description says more than 2,500. It links to separate sister sites for Latvia (CV.lv) and Lithuania (CVonline.lt), a Ukrainian-language section for refugees and a “Russian required” filter. The homepage does not state fees for job seekers.

Strength: English interface and language filters.
Strength: one group covers all three Baltic states.
Weakness: two different job totals on the same page.

MojPosao

MojPosao is Croatia’s largest job board and is operated by Alma Career Croatia in Zagreb. Listings cover cities across Croatia plus remote roles, and some job titles are in English or German. The interface is in Croatian only, and the homepage showed featured jobs rather than a total count. It does not state fees for job seekers.

Strength: the main channel for formal jobs in Croatia.
Weakness: Croatian only, with no published total.

Temporary protection for Ukrainians now runs to 4 March 2028

The largest group of non-EU workers in the region are Ukrainians with temporary protection, and their right to work depends on that status. EU countries agreed in July 2026 to extend temporary protection by a year, to 4 March 2028, according to Finland’s interior ministry, and about 4.4 million people hold it across the EU and Schengen area.

The extension came with a new limit: men of military age who leave Ukraine in breach of their military obligations will no longer receive temporary protection, though the change does not apply to people who already hold it. The EU is also preparing a coordinated exit, so Ukrainians who plan to stay longer are being encouraged to move onto ordinary work and residence permits before March 2028.

Job Sites in Central and Eastern Europe, With Work Rights