Prospects for Ukraine’s employment market
Volodymyr HALYTSKY: Ukraine’s unemployment rate has essentially reverted to the 2003-04 levels
While going through hard times, people must be afraid of losing, above all, means of subsistence and their jobs. What is the current condition of the employment sphere? Will Ukrainians be able to realize their work potential this year? What should be done for this to happen? These issues are commented on by Director of the State Employment Center Volodymyr Halytsky.
The world financial and economic crisis has affected the home employment market as well. Already at the end of 2008, the first — but regrettably not the last — wave of lay-offs covered the country. What is the general picture of employment in Ukraine today?
“November and December of 2008 and the first two months of 2009 were critical for the State Employment Service. But the most critical situation was indeed in December of 2008. At the time, the number of unemployed people registered at the employment center increased by 7,000–11,000 daily. Our integrated technology of providing social services, which has been in operation for almost 10 years and is being constantly improved, as well as the new physical infrastructure created in the past four years helped withstand this mass flow of clients. In particular, our technology of registration in combination with the integrated computer system of employment services made it possible to pay appropriate attention to everyone: in order to find a matching vacancy, direct a person for re-education, offer participation in paid social works, etc.
“In the first nine months of 2009 the population’s unemployment rate (based on the methodology of the International Labor Organization) constituted 8.6 percent. But it is lower than in such countries of the European Union as France and Portugal (9.4 percent), Hungary (9.6 percent), Slovakia (11.1 percent), Ireland (11.7 percent), Estonia (13.2 percent), Latvia (16.2 percent), and Spain (17.7 percent).”
What are the prospects for the domestic job market this year? Will it be possible for Ukraine’s citizens to find jobs? Who has more chances to be employed?
“I suppose there will be no considerable increase in the unemployment rate. We are not talking now about a deepening crisis. We are speaking about traditional seasonal vacillations on the job market which have been observed for many years and are characteristic of most countries.
“The most reliable forecast for everyone is professionalism. It is valued in an employee under any economic conditions. Employers are interested not only in the employee’s diploma, but first of all in his or her knowledge, practical skills, and experience. Qualifications, the quality of work, the ability to adapt under new conditions, the ability to achieve concrete results for a company and enterprise have always been in demand, and one more mandatory condition is a desire to work! He who has these qualities will always be employed.”
