Over 6,500 young Kyivans were unemployed in the first half of this year

With almost 60% of high school graduates going to receive higher education, the number of university-level students has doubled in recent years. Alas, far from all of them manage to put their outstanding abilities to proper use. For example, where do the 26,000 lawyers annually produced by various educational institutions work? Although this allows the employer to choose the best, it also often creates the impression of massive youth unemployment. Indeed, it is impossible today to revive the old system of being guaranteed jobs. Today’s labor market creates a demand for a kind of professional and specialist that higher educational institutions do not train. Moreover, according to economist Vyacheslav Kredisov, unemployment in any civilized country is a powerful stimulus to job-seeking and upgrading skills. It is normal when 5% of people are looking for a job in an economically developed country. Mr. Kredisov believes another reason why there are so many jobless young people in Ukraine is open borders and the chance to receive more information about the seemingly trouble-free life in other countries. This has caused our young people to shape quite an unrealistic pattern of demands and expectations. They no longer want to content themselves with the minimum wage at the start of their careers. They want it all, and they want it now. Young people hate waiting too long for a successful career or big salary. For this reason, state-run institutions and organizations do not attract them, while business is still in its infancy. While in many countries small and medium business is one of the main sources of job creation (for example, it provides over 50% of jobs in Poland and the Czech Republic), it accounts for 20% in Ukraine. On the other hand, League of Parliamentary Assistants President Sviatoslav Sheremetiev notes that, for example, the US tackles the problem of employment on the basis of competition among job-seekers. Only when an individual fails to find a job in his profession does he/she have to start a career that does not satisfy him/her intellectually or financially. But, in any case, one has to work to win his daily bread. Plus the existing rating system of educational institutions guarantees that, for instance, a Harvard graduate will find a job.

In Ukraine, according to Olena Yashchenko, the Kyiv City Job Center director of public relations, there were more than 6,500 unemployed young people in the first six months of 2003 — 22% of all those recorded. During the same period, 3,000 or almost 31% of all those who found employment, managed to get vacant and newly created jobs. Many enterprises and organizations reserve a certain number of jobs specially for young people. Such employers receive state funds to create new jobs. There being 600 places reserved as of today, where the job centers remit to enterprises the equivalent of the young workers’ annual pay. These blue-collar jobs are usually intended for general and vocational school graduates. In the first six months, 200, including 28 minors, people filled these vacancies. Ms. Yashchenko emphasizes that blue-collar jobs suffer from light demand today. The number of jobs for woodworkers, painters, milling-machine operators, and electrical gas welders is twice that of those willing to fill such vacancies. At the same time, the number of vacancies for economists, managers, and accountants is only half the number of those seeking such jobs. Now, according to Ms. Yashchenko, when the labor market really needs such specialists, it needs very highly skilled people with good employment records. This problem can be solved by the retraining of young specialists. Moreover, the unemployed receive absolutely free consultation on basic business and job- seeking techniques, while school graduates are given professional orientation tests. For example, 1,200 young jobless have been professionally retrained this year alone. In addition, university degree holders can take, free of charge, a nine-month second higher education course of study at one of the city’s educational institutions. Naturally, if a college graduate wants to work in his profession only, the job center tries to help him/her. Should the center fail to do so within a certain time period, it suggests that he/she get a second education. Thus, while only 52% of job-seekers manage to get work in their profession, this percentage rises to 75% after conversion training.

It is therefore quite obvious that Ukrainian youth still has employment opportunities, the more so that this country is gradually putting Western experience into practice. In the West, an employer selects his employees from among the graduates of certain educational institutions. In today’s Ukraine too the so-called job fair presents higher and vocational educational institutions, such as the Krok Institute of Economics and Law, the Ukrainian National University of Food-Making Technologies, the European University, the Academy of Municipal Management, the Kyiv Vocational College of Sewing and Hairdressing, etc. — a total of nearly fifty establishments. All kinds of Kyiv employer organizations (cultural, medical, trade facilities, private firms, and state offices) can find the workers they need at the fair.

In other words, there obviously are ways of solving the problem of youth unemployment. Yet, this is still an acute problem. Some see the root of the evil, for example, in prejudice against young specialists. However, here the experts disagree. Our law sets out no restrictions as to the employment of women and young people: so even if a certain employer has really turned down some job applicant, this is not only a matter for his conscience. In case of an unjustified refusal to employ, the aggrieved party has the right to sue the employer, though most people do not even know about this right.

In Mr. Sheremetiev’s view, another problem is that today’s young people are not prepared for market relations: apart from not knowing how to look for a place to realize their potential, they do not know how to present themselves on the labor market, for example, by writing a resume. The expert thinks most of them have quite a strange idea of the places where their skills can be best utilized. Also disquieting is the popular perception that employment is impossible without a diploma. This makes some people apply to a college at random just to receive the coveted piece of paper. The result is the young person has neither a stimulus to study nor an aspiration to acquire the needed skills, for he/she will not get a job because his/her specialty is not in demand. Thus Mr. Yashchenko believes a young person should first of all be informed about the available vacancies in the popular professions and then persuaded that he/she can start a career even on a small salary. For it is far more important to demonstrate what one can do.