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How to increase your workforce in Frostpunk 2

Your Workforce in Frostpunk 2 is your lifeblood, almost as much as your coal or oil. So it’s perfectly understable that you’re wondering how to increase your workforce in Frostpunk 2, and thankfully, there are several ways to do this.

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All of them are quite easy to implement, as well. I’ve been there, and done that, and I’m here to show you the ropes.

Enjoy.

How to increase your workforce in Frostpunk 2

You can increase your workforce by managing active workers inside of Districts, by building Air Transport Hubs near working Districts, by exploration, or, finally, by population growth. All of these routes are viable, and we’ll walk you through each one here so you know exactly how to increase your workforce in-game.

Increase your workforce by reducing active workers

The first and easiest way to increase your workforce in Frostpunk 2 is to reduce active workers in some of your districts. This can be done by clicking on any active District and reducing the amount of workers with the slider.

The total activity being reduced in a district to free up more of the workforce in Frostpunk 2.
Screenshot by Upcomer

The decision making process here is quite simple. Look at where you’re producing excess resources, and then click on one of those type of districts. Then change the toggle switch to the left as far as you want in order to free up workforce.

As an example, let’s say we’re producing 395 food and 104 materials, as shown in the screenshot below.

The resource values on the Frostpunk 2 user interface that can guide decision making on how to increase the available workforce.
Screenshot by Upcomer

Which option do we choose to reduce here? The food, since it’s producing more? We would, but we can also see that the total food stock, represented by how far the bar is filled in, is quite low. Our materials stock is at capacity, so it would make sense in this case to lower the materials production instead.

As our food surplus nears capacity, we can then either build additional storage hubs, or reduce the amount of workers in our Food Districts.

How to increase workforce using Air Transport Hubs in Frostpunk 2

The next method we have at our disposal is through the Idea Tree. There are likely many options hidden here, but the go-to-that I’ve found is the Air Transport Hub, which can be found in the Idea Tree under the Hubs tab.

The Air Transport Hub circled in the Idea tree that can help to increase available workforce in Frostpunk 2.
Screenshot by Upcomer

Once you’ve researched it, you can build the Air Transport Hub near Districts to reduce the workforce requirements for that District. This means that building a few of them can grow your workforce quite effectively.

How to increase your workforce Frostpunk 2 by lawmaking

There are several laws that will bolster your workforce in Frostpunk 2 quickly and easily. The first of these is the Outsiders law, which is located under the city tab in your Council menu.

The outsiders law highlighted by an arrow in the Council screen that can help increase the players workforce in Frostpunk 2
Screenshot by Upcomer

There are three variations of this law that you can pass. The first is Admit No Outsiders, which is the wrong choice if you’re trying to increase your workforce. The next option is Accept All Outsiders, which will increase your population and, in turn, increase your workforce.

The best option to increase your workforce is Allow Productive Outsiders. This will only allow able workers into your city, which means your population will increase along with your workforce. However, you’ll get events where families were separated and that can be quite a hard pill to swallow.

The Council screen with an arrow highlighting the Productive Outsiders law that can help player efficiently increase their workforce in Frostpunk 2.
Screenshot by Upcomer

While my city was growing, I had this in effect. Now, however, I have enough workforce to cover all our needs plus some excess, and so I’ve switched back to allow families to reunite. At least, that’s what I hope will happen!

Two other laws that you can change to increase your workforce are Childhood and Youth, under the Society tab in your Council screen.

Two laws highlighted in the Council screen that will help players increase their workforce in Frostpunk 2
Screenshot by Upcomer

Under Childhood, you’ll want to pass Family Apprenticeship in order to get a bigger workforce. Under Youth, passing Liberated Youth can also help you to get a bigger workforce, but you’ll also have your Heatstamps income slightly reduced.

How to increase workforce by Exploration

This step requires you to have enough Frostland Teams available to explore new areas of the Frostlands. To do this, you’ll need to have built a Logisticts District on top of an Old Waystation.

Once this is done, scroll out all the way so you see the larger map with neighboring locations to explore. Click on one of the locations and then look out for the Frostland Dwellers icon, which looks like a couple of people and a plus sign.

The exploration screen with an arrow highlighting the Frostland Dwellers icon that can help to increase the workforce in Frostpunk 2.
Screenshot by Upcomer

This icon means that there’s a chance you’ll find additional settlers to let in to your city. This will increase both your population and your workforce. However, letting outsiders in isn’t always the right call. So you may want to grow your population from the inside.

How to increase your workforce naturally in Frostpunk 2

The final method we have available to us is to simply wait for your population to grow. Waiting is never a recommended strategy in Frostpunk 2, but in this case, it could be a viable option.

You can hasten this population growth by passing laws that support it. The first of these we’ve already discussed, and that’s the Outsiders law. But you can also hasten this growth through research.

This research can be found in the Idea Tree under the Society tab. You’ll want to research Parenthood to give your population and workforce a healthy boost over time, and you can also then go on to research subsequent ideas that will further help this growth.

The idea tree with two branches of research highlighted by arrows that can increase the workforce in Frostpunk 2.
Screenshot by Upcomer

And that’s all there is to it. Following any of these ideas above will help you to increase your available workforce in Frostpunk 2, so you can continue expanding and horde the resources you’ll need to survive that next whiteout.

Good luck! Up next, you may want to get your population’s health under control, with all these new people bringing in their newfangled illnesses. So, here’s how to decrease disease in Frostpunk 2.


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Author
Image of Kyle Ferreira
Kyle Ferreira
As the content manager at Upcomer, Kyle brings a lifetime of gaming and over seven years of professional writing experience to the platform. He holds a tender spot for indie games, but can sometimes be found in an FPS getting destroyed in a fruitless attempt to relive his old CS 1.6 glory days. After which he can usually be found licking his wounds in a chill game of Kenshi.