Oleksii Miroshnychenko, President, Confederation of Employers of Ukraine

The war has changed everything, in particular the understanding of inclusion. We perceived it before as a possibility for persons with disabilities to integrate into societal processes, first of all move, learn and work freely. As presently perceived, inclusion is not only about low-floor transport, ramps or wide passages in a building, large toilets, and much space at the workplace. Today, inclusion in the labour market means accessibility of quick acquisition of a new profession and the opportunity to work for everyone capable and willing: from persons with disabilities to students and people of pensionable age.

Why can inclusion rescue the labour market? In the current conditions, we can only reckon on those people who stay in the country. Clearly, our citizens aboard, and foreigners alike, will hardly come to Ukraine because of danger, no housing, and lack of jobs. We have only one solution – engage as much as possible those who can work and are currently in Ukraine.

I’d like to mention that women in male positions are not so much a large-scale phenomenon as it might seem. Our calculations how that at least one million women are outside the official labour market. However, only 583 women have mastered “male” professions in the biggest energy company, in mines and other facilities. It is useless to expect that not thousands but hundreds of thousands of women will be working in male positions. Perhaps, such a situation has arisen because of the massive scale of another phenomenon – after mobilization of men, women in families with children are the only adult who can care for the younger generation.

Much hope on persons with disabilities. There are 2.55 million able-bodied persons with disabilities in Ukraine at present. 57% of them, 1.5 million, have disability group 3. Of these 2.55 million, about 465 thousand, that is only 18%, are employed. This is one of the lowest figures among the European Union countries. If systemic changes are implemented, no less than one more million people will be able to get a job.

The first thing to be done is to change the state’s approach to the issue of job placement of persons with disabilities. At present, all the responsibility is rested only on business that can choose one of two options: hire a person with disability or pay a fine. Enterprises paid UAH 417 million’s worth of administrative economic sanctions in 2023 whereas courts are considering lawfulness of collection of UAH 3.5 billion more.

Pensioners are the second promising group to replenish the labour market. The war has overcome ageism. Business is now interested to bring “young” pensioners and people aged 65+ back to the labour market at least for the period of war and reconstruction. As of September 2024, 413 thousand people older than 65 are employed, that being 11% of the 3.5 million people group (https://www.futureskills.org.ua/). According to preliminary estimates, about a million pensioners could work for some more time under certain circumstances.

The third promising group consists of students. 1.76 million students attend education institutions of all levels in Ukraine today. At least 500 thousand of them – upper-level students – could work a few hours per week in their study-free time.

It is difficult to evaluate a potential of return of today’s war veterans to the market. These boys and girls fighting for victory at the front deserve respect and attention. Many of them will change their professions. They will return to civilian life and work but their reintegration will take much time.

The bottom line: about 3 million employees can be potentially engaged in the labour market though it’s not an easy task. And here, the state has a defining role to play.

Where to start? First of all – create a system of continuous monitoring and analysis of the labour market situation. Secondly, it is necessary to create incentives and preferences for the population and business finding compromise solutions. For example, cancellation of payment of a 22% single social security tax and non-reduction of pensions will be sensitive to employes and pensioners – that would be beneficial both to workers aged 65+ and employers. However, they will be paying income tax, and that’s beneficial to the state.

To people with disabilities, veterans and students, it will be important to acquire practical knowledge that will give them a quick start in the labour market. The state should play a leading role here. It is the state that must be an initiator, apply to these population groups, and tell them about new opportunities and prospects as well as design economic incentives.

Adult training and retraining should become a priority of the state policy that must be financed in decent amounts. Implementation of the lifelong learning concept will become a foundation for labour productivity increase.

Surely, rapid entry into the labour market will need short-term training programmes, acquisition of partial qualification, microskills, etc.

The war has shown that people should be fought for. Our tentative competitors are Germany, Poland, and Czechia which offer more attractive work conditions, a clear sky, and no explosions. We have a chance to retain those who are in the country now. Their being home, on their native land, is the key factor.

Source: Dzerkalo Tyzhnia