What is the situation on the labour market?

Russia’s full-scale invasion is destroying not only peaceful life, cities and villages. This war has already destroyed about half of the labour market in Ukraine, according to surveys of employees and the self-employed. The experts estimate that employees, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, have been hit the hardest. The prospects for retraining are still uncertain, whilst employment growth is only expected in a few sectors.

Oleksandra Kolomiiets, a senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategy in Kyiv, told DW that the official statistics, which show the number of unemployed increased by at least half a million compared to last year’s figures, do not include those who have been forced to stop their business activities, but have not yet registered as unemployed. Employed workers are also not included in these statistics if they have not been formally laid off, but only sent on unpaid leave.

It is possible to improve one’s financial situation by changing their profession. But Oleksandra Kolomiiets believes that retraining is not yet widespread.

“Basically, people do not seek retraining, because they are not sure that the new profession will be in demand due to the general decline in production. In addition, our workforce is predominantly elderly and investing effort, time and money to become an inexperienced junior specialist again makes little sense for people aged 45-50,” the expert told DW.

Among the industries in need of a large number of skilled workers is the defence sector. Oleksandra Kolomiiets agrees with this. Moreover, in her opinion, there are already many people willing to join the army and get a guaranteed pay there.

Among them are also those who cannot find another job. The expert believes that there are other promising sectors in the future, such as construction and landscaping.

Read the full article on the DW website in ukrainian.