Unemployment Approaches Category of No. 1 Concern
Ukraine’s registered unemployed will increase from 4.3% to 6.57% of the labor force late this year, says Economy Minister Serhiy Tyhypko. This means that the current 1,174,000 officially registered as jobless will grow to 1,700,000, reports Interfax Ukraine.
The State Employment Center of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy expects the number of persons registered as temporarily out of work to reach 3.2 million this year, including 2.7 million officially unemployed (these figures obviously contradict the previous ones).
Information provided The Day by the state employment service points to 2,056,000 unemployed officially registered in 1999. In total, its 1999 records show almost 2,476,000 jobless. As of January 1, 2000, with Ukraine’s average 4.3% unemployment, it ranged from 6.23-7.67% in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Sumy, Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Lviv, and Chernihiv oblasts. The same source points to an increased number of registered vacancies, making it possible to lower the number of applicants per job opening to 24 persons, compared to the period of December 30 — January 1, 1999.
Serhiy Soboliev, deputy chairman of the Reforms and Order Party, believes that “we are now in a situation where the notion of unemployment is approaching the category of No. 1 concern, being experienced by most citizens of Ukraine,” and that “the unemployment problem is primarily regional.” He told The Day, “A great many jobless are people living in small populated areas,” and the number includes residents of traditionally industrial regions like the Donbas, due to the stoppage of many large industrial enterprises. Another aspect of the problem Mr. Soboliev sees in the miserable pensions that are regularly delayed. Because of this many pensioners have to look for other ways to make a living, which “one way or another impacts badly on the labor market as a whole.” As for the employment program, it should “focus primarily on stimulating small business.” This, in turn, requires “a package of decisions meant to lift a number of unjustified injunctions still effective in the business sphere, along with authorizations and quotas restricting mainly small business, and to lower taxes to stimulate their development.” Hundreds of thousands of new jobs will be possible only after Ukraine provides conditions in which it will be possible to start hundreds of thousands of small businesses, Mr. Soboliev is convinced.
He sees another important aspect in stepping up privatization in production, thus stimulating an influx of domestic and foreign investment, creating “a civilized infrastructure.” Third, he believes, “The state program of training specialists in institutions of higher learning must be completely reviewed” to make it one “stimulating the creation of additional training places for students that cannot be provided with jobs in principle.” Mr. Soboliev noted that these problems, in his opinion, “can be solved within the limits of the existing budget, but they cannot be solved under the laws currently in force” and that the threat posed by unemployment “will be endemic for the next five years,” but “there is a chance to avoid a societal explosion.”
