Ukraine has lost over a quarter of its workforce

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, business in Ukraine has lost over a quarter of its workforce.

It is not only because tens of thousands of men have been sent to the front as soldiers. Millions of Ukrainians, mainly families with children, have fled abroad.

Lack of competence

The Ministry of Finance has carried out a survey of 3,000 companies about how the situation is for them. Nearly 60 per cent of the companies answered that a main challenge is to obtain competent workers.

– The situation is really critical, says Tetiana Petruk, sustainability manager at the steel company Metinvest. It is one of Ukraine’s largest employers with a workforce of around 45,000. Today, the company has around 4,000 vacancies.

– The lack of labor directly affects our production, Petruk tells Reuters in an online interview.

– We are not the only ones who know about the staffing shortage, it is experienced by all companies across the country. This also applies to our contractors, she says.

Changed practice

Reuters has interviewed representatives of nine Ukrainian companies, from large industrial companies to retail groups and small private entrepreneurs about the situation. All respond that staff shortages and a lack of competence are major challenges.

Companies state that they have changed both their recruitment and the way they run their business. They expand job descriptions, hire retirees, offer more benefits – especially for younger workers. They carry out automation where possible and rotation between existing employees.

Wages have also been increased, to attract people.

Truck driver

After spending years in what she describes as boring office jobs, Liliia Shulha suddenly landed her dream job: truck driver at Ukraine’s leading retailer, Fozzy Group.

– I have always dreamed of big cars, she says.

Before the war, it was not easy for women to enter male-dominated professions.

– They take in people without experience and give them training. I am lucky, says 40-year-old Shulha.

The Kyiv School of Economics states that there is a noticeable shift in how employers hire people. Women, young people and pensioners have become attractive.

Employers adjust the criteria to attract necessary employees. This trend also contributes to entrepreneurship, where the proportion of female entrepreneurs is growing significantly.

Women break male dominance

In the southern agricultural region of Mykolayiv, women are being trained as tractor drivers. Women are also increasingly working as tram and lorry drivers, coal miners, security guards and warehouse workers, Reuters is informed by the companies.

– We offer training and jobs for women who have minimal experience, says Lyubov Ukrainets, director of human resources at Silpo, part of the Fozzy Group.

The company currently has six female truck drivers and is also more actively recruiting women for other previously male-dominated jobs, including shopkeepers, butchers and security guards.

Lack of childcare

The proportion of female employees is also growing in industries such as steel production.

However, many women are unable or unwilling to start work due to a lack of childcare.

Shulha, who works 15 days straight on the road, has moved back in with her parents to ensure the care of her 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter.

Suspended military service

The central bank states that the male-dominated industries are naturally most strongly affected.

This applies, among other things, to the construction sector, transport and mining, which feel the military mobilization very well. To keep the economy going, the government has implemented measures to help companies in a critical situation.

In the energy and arms production sectors, for example, all employees are eligible for deferred military service. In some other sectors, companies may retain 50 percent of male employees. But the process to get a deferment is long and complicated.

The lack of labor is a major problem and can put economic growth at risk – even after the war is over, analysts believe.