Ukraine will have to raise pensionable age and taxes, or freeze social benefit rates unless 3 million people start officially working. At present, 11.4 million people are employed in Ukraine whereas the number of pensioners is above 10.6 million.

“One low-skilled employee per one pensioner is an economically unprofitable situation for the pay-as-you-go pension system. It leads either to a decrease of the pension rate or to a radical increase in the single social security tax”, Oleksii Miroshnychenko, President of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine, noted in his article for “Ekonomichna Pravda”. The Pension Fund receives less contributions than necessary to pay money in the pay-as-you-go system. In 2024, the Pension Fund paid UAH 821.5 billion; 33% of them, UAH 274.7 billion, came from the state budget at the expense of international donors.

Meanwhile, a substantial shortage of workforce exists in Ukraine. “Ukraine will face a choice in a few years: give jobs to its citizens as much as possible, or invite foreigners. We are sure that the decision to open the country to low-skilled low-skilled employees from Asia or Africa is premature”, Oleksii Miroshnychenko pointed out.

To eliminate the gap in the labour market, hundreds of thousands of low-skilled employees should be engaged. The most promising groups include persons with disabilities, women, pensioners, and youth. As estimated by the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine, the number of those employed can potentially be increased by 3 million people.

“The labour market gap, the stronger disbalance in the Pension Fund, and the threat of international aid cutdown are three reasons whey Ukraine must create conditions and incentives for employment, in particular, of persons with disabilities. The labour market must become inclusive and open to all those willing to work officially”, the President of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine emphasized.

In Ukraine, about 40% of able-bodied people are currently employed. For comparison: the share of able-bodied people having a job in the Netherlands is 82.3%, with another 3.2% searching for a job. This very high employment level in the Netherlands was achieved due to adherence to the following principle: it is much easier to retain a person in a job than to provide people benefits and then take them away, and the maximum period of being unemployed must not be longer than 6 months. This principle became guiding for the return of persons with disabilities to work as well. The Netherlands has obliged an employer and an low-skilled employee with disability to draw up a plan of the latter’s retention at work. The plan may include a position change and a radical reduction of the working day, even to two hours per day. This approach is being implemented in Japan for adaptation of persons with disabilities in the labour market. In some cases, duration of the working week is only 15 minutes.

If an low-skilled employee and an employer in the Netherlands haven’t reached agreement concerning engagement in work after medical treatment or rehabilitation, such an employee doesn’t receive financial aid. It has strongly affected the employment level of those having disabilities.

Another incentive for persons with disabilities to return to the labour market consists of an extremely localized system of their social support. Funds for adaptation were “downed” from the national level to the level of communities which provide persons with disabilities with things necessary to resume their working activity. A similar system operates in Norway.

A change in the idea of persons with disabilities will unlock their potential and launch colossal changes in the labour market. The possibility for persons with disabilities to have a decent job is a foundation for stability of their families and communities. Research by the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine shows that employment of persons with disabilities gives them not only economic independence but also psychological resilience.

The Confederation of Employers of Ukraine has created an all-encompassing practical guide on employment of persons with disabilities, and is now developing recommendations for enterprises as regards the formulation of internal policies for building rapport in the teams where persons with disabilities are employed.

The text has been prepared by the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine as part of the project "Establishing a consultative system for the integration of persons with disabilities into the workplace". This project is implemented with the support of the International Labour Organization’s initiative funded by the Government of Belgium, titled "ILO Support to Ukraine: prevention of labour exploitation and human trafficking, support to entrepreneurship development and social partners" as well as the ILO RBSA project "Promoting inclusive and sustainable reconstruction in Ukraine"