Labour Shortage and Labour Retention as a Possible Strategy in a Difficult Economic Situation Based on the Empirical Data of a Transitioning Economy

In the article, the Hungarian results of the research conducted in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are presented. The main objective of the study was to demonstrate an examination of organizational responses to labour shortages and labour retention strategies based on organisational size and ownership background. In the theoretical part, we present the general situation of the Hungarian labour market and then discuss the effects of COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukrainian war, followed by labour shortage and retention. Our research was based on a survey of 383 organizations in Central and Eastern European economies, during which four hypotheses were tested. The SPSS 27.0 software package was used to evaluate the results. In the findings, we confirmed that organisations of various ownership and size differ in the means they use to retain the labour force and also in the factors that contribute to labour shortages in different positions. As an implication of management and economics, we found that size and ownership do not only affect retention strategy as suggested by previous literature but also the factors that contribute to labour shortages in different positions. Implications for Central European audience: A novel feature of the paper is that it takes into account the effects of organization size and ownership while analysing the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war for the first time. It is also the first Hungarian study to investigate the effect of an economic crisis due to the Russian-Ukrainian war on labour retention and labour shortage by the size and ownership of organizations. The findings would set a comparison for corporations in Central European countries too.